Contact: Brenon Daly
On its visit to Paris, Francisco Partners brought home more than just a miniature souvenir Eiffel Tower. In the past week, the buyout shop has announced not one but two $100m deals struck in the French capital. Francisco’s unusual double dip comes at a time when the dollar, which had been at multiyear highs against the euro earlier in 2010, has slumped in recent weeks. (We recently looked at the trade winds blowing across the Atlantic.)
For Francisco, the transactions would help restock its European holdings. The buyout shop sold Swiss chip company Numonyx to Micron Technology for $1.3bn in May. In its first deal, Francisco put forward a $100m offer for the Grass Valley Broadcast business, which is being divested by Paris-based Technicolor. (The actual Grass Valley Broadcast business operates in central California, an ocean away from The City of Light.) In probably the more interesting move, Francisco picked up a majority stake in on-demand email marketing company Emailvision. The purchase gave Emailvision, which was advised by Pacific Crest Securities, a fully diluted equity value of about $109m.