Contact: Brenon Daly
Just a half-year after Vista Equity Partners dropped a quarter-billion dollars on bankrupt enterprise software vendor CDC Software, the buyout shop has significantly bulked up the platform with the addition of Consona. The combined entity, which is the collection of more than 30 separate acquisitions by the two companies over the years, also got a name change. It now does business as Aptean.
With the double-barreled deals, Vista Equity now has a fairly sizable ERP and CRM business. CDC was generating about $220m in sales when Vista Equity picked it up earlier this year. The addition of Consona will push Aptean’s top line to nearly $350m, according to our understanding. (Terms of the transaction weren’t officially released.)
Perhaps more important to Vista Equity, however, is the fact that Consona probably throws off as much – if not more – cash than the much larger CDC. Our understanding is that Consona ran at an EBITDA margin in the 30% range, meaning it generates about $40m of cash flow each year. And that level is almost certain to go up when Vista Equity consolidates some of the duplicate operations of CDC and Consona.
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