VERACODE acquired by THOMA BRAVO

Five Arrows announced the acquisition of a majority block of Harvest's capital from its foundersand key managers at a price of EUR85 per share. This block purchase triggered a mandatory simplified public tender offer (OPA) for the remaining shares. This deal marks the first step towards the company's delisting.

The transaction involves the acquisition of a controlling interest in SCHEMA Group by the IK Small Cap II Fund, alongside the company’s founders. This deal represents a strategic partnership intended to transition the founder-led niche leader into an institutionalized platform capable of capturing broader international market share. The strategic rationale for the investment is centered on accelerating the company's organic growth within its core DACH market while expanding its sales reach into new global geographies. IK intends to deploy significant capital toward product development and operational enhancements to maintain the company’s status as a CCMS innovation leader. The founders' decision to retain a stake and remain involved in the strategic roadmap ensures continuity of technical expertise and alignment with the private equity sponsor’s value creation goals.

Private equity firm Hg (formerly HgCapital) has reached a definitive agreement to divest the HR software company Lumesse to trade buyer Saba Software, which is currently backed by private equity sponsor Vector Capital. The competitive sale process was run by US investment bank Jefferies Group LLC. Scheduled to successfully close by the end of 2018, the transaction brings to an end an eight-year holding period for Hg, which originally backed the platform through its £1.87bn HgCapital 6 fund. The integration of Lumesse into Saba Software—a company maintaining dual headquarters in Ireland and the US—will create a highly consolidated industry entity boasting a combined roster of 4,700 clients. For the seller, the exit concludes an investment cycle that saw proactive buy-and-build strategies, including the bolt-on acquisition of educational software business Edvantage Group. The divestiture successfully realizes an asset that had historically underperformed but registered notable operational progress over the previous year.

In a landmark European tech transaction, Abry Partners, via its vehicle Victory Partners VIII Norway AS, has launched a recommended voluntary cash offer to acquire the entire issued share capital of LINK Mobility Group ASA. The transaction is structured as a public-to-private (P2P) takeover, with the board of directors of LINK Mobility providing a unanimous recommendation in favor of the deal. Notably, the transaction includes a substantial management roll-over, where key executive investors are reinvesting a portion of their holdings (representing 14.7% of the company) into the new holding structure. This alignment of interests, combined with pre-acceptances from institutional shareholders, secured approximately 54% of the share capital at the announcement date. This leveraged buyout is designed to provide LINK Mobility with the private capital and operational flexibility required to pursue a grander global scale. For Abry Partners, this acquisition serves as a strategic entry point into the European CPaaS market, providing a platform for further regional consolidation. The deal highlights the ongoing trend of US-based private equity firms seeking "alpha" in the European mid-market technology sector by targeting high-growth, mission-critical software platforms.

In a significant move within the marketing technology landscape, Insight Venture Partners has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Optimizely from Accel-KKR. This transaction represents a major milestone for Optimizely, following a period of "hyper-growth" characterized by the successful transition to a SaaS-led model and the expansion of its Digital Experience Cloud™ platform. The deal is structured as a strategic leveraged buyout (LBO) aimed at accelerating Optimizely's global product roadmap and enhancing its go-to-market initiatives. Under the previous ownership of Accel-KKR, the target successfully integrated several strategic acquisitions and built a robust channel ecosystem, resulting in a leadership position within the Digital Experience Platform (DXP) market. Insight Venture Partners intends to leverage its deep operational expertise in the software sector to further scale Optimizely’s presence in the global digital transformation market, which is projected to reach institutional scales.

Intertek has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Alchemy from the private equity firm The Riverside Company. This acquisition strategically expands the acquirer,s global Assurance business by adding a bespoke People Assurance SaaS offering that focuses on employee skills and frontline productivity. The integration is expected to yield strong commercial synergies, particularly within the food supply chain where both companies maintain a significant footprint. The target's subscription-based revenue model, characterized by three-year contracts and high client retention rates, provides excellent revenue visibility and strengthens the acquirer's financial profile. The management team of the target will remain with the business to drive the next phase of growth, which includes scaling the software solutions to industries beyond the food sector, such as manufacturing and retail, across the acquirer's global network.

In a move that significantly reinforces its digital manufacturing roadmap, Sandvik AB has entered into an agreement to acquire Metrologic Group from Astorg Partners. The transaction represents a valuation multiple that reflects Metrologic's high-margin profile and its critical position in the industrial software ecosystem. This acquisition is a cornerstone of Sandvik Machining Solutions' strategy to broaden its customer offering by integrating quality assurance and metrology into its existing metal-cutting expertise. The deal is structured as a strategic trade sale following a period of ownership by the private equity firm Astorg. Metrologic Group will be integrated into Sandvik as an independent business unit, ensuring the preservation of its "agnostic" brand status—a key requirement for maintaining its broad customer base of hardware competitors. This vertical integration allows Sandvik to link the machining and quality processes, offering a "closed-loop" manufacturing chain that reduces waste and increases precision for global OEMs. From a financial standpoint, the acquisition is expected to be initially neutral to slightly positive on earnings per share, with Metrologic's superior EBITDA margins expected to be accretive to the division. This transaction underscores the ongoing trend of large-scale industrial incumbents acquiring specialized software players to defend their market share against the rise of Industry 4.0 and to transition toward higher-margin, software-driven recurring revenue streams.

NeoXam, a prominent provider of data management and transaction processing solutions for the financial industry, has secured a strategic investment from Cathay Capital and Bpifrance. The consortium is acquiring the stake previously held by BlackFin Capital Partners, which successfully led the company�s carve-out and initial expansion phase starting in 2014.

The acquisition Teracomm by LINK Mobility Group, designed to consolidate the mobile messaging market in South-Eastern Europe. The strategic rationale focuses on building a unified regional platform by creating synergy between Teracomm and LINK’s existing regional operations. By aggregating technical infrastructure and sales networks, the group intends to accelerate the deployment of innovative mobile messaging and data services across the region. This expansion is central to LINK’s broader objective of scaling its European presence and leveraging the high underlying growth rates of the South-Eastern European market. The acquisition enables the group to utilize shared technical expertise and professional resources to enhance service delivery and reach a broader client base. Furthermore, the divestiture allows the seller to pivot its strategic focus toward Internet of Things (IoT) products and services, thereby optimizing its resource allocation while ensuring the continuity of the mobile messaging business under a proven industry operator.

IK Partners entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire a significant stake in Questel, with a structured mechanism to become the majority shareholder over time. This transaction marks the exit of Capzanine as a shareholder (though it remains the unitranche debt provider) and the reinvestment of Raise alongside IK Partners and CEO Charles Besson. The strategic rationale for the deal is to fund and accelerate Questel's aggressive build-up strategy following a period of exceptional performance where EBITDA tripled to reach €18M. The partnership allows Questel to leverage IK's pan-European network to further its international expansion, particularly capitalizing on its dominant position in patent databases and high-value services for multinational corporations.