US private equity fund Francisco Partners today signed a deal to acquire Israeli company SintecMedia for $400 million.
Riverwood Capital, the current controlling shareholder in SintecMedia with an 84% holding, is also a US private equity fund, and is therefore making the major profit on this deal. Riverwood acquired its first stake in 2010 from previous investors, including venture capital funds Walden Israel and Sequoia Capital, Kardan Communications, and the Fishman group, and later increased its holdings, thereupon becoming the controlling shareholder in SintecMedia.
CEO Amotz Yarden, who according to the Registrar of Companies owned 9.4% of the company shares, will receive $38 million (NIS 143 million), before taxes.
In terms of Israeli high tech, SintecMedia is not a young company, and is certainly not a startup. Founded 16 years ago, it develops software for managing content, airtime, and the sale of advertising for television channels. Its annual revenue turnover is in the tens of millions of dollars, and the company makes a profit.
SintecMedia took a big step forward in early 2014, when it acquired Pilat Media Global, a competitor listed on the UK AIM stock exchange in which it already had a 22.7% stake. SintecMedia paid $103 million for the rest of Pilat Media, a company whose business was identical to its own.
Francisco Partners is not unknown to readers of the Israeli economic press. Last year, the fund acquired Israeli company ClickSoftware for $438 million in cash. Francisco Partners has since raised $10 billion, making it one of the world's largest private equity funds, with over 75 portfolio companies. Before ClickSoftware, Francisco Partners acquired homeland security solutions developer NSO for more than $100 million.
Eliezer Fishman in the controlling shareholder in "Globes."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 27, 2016
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