Founders experienced another exciting and fulfilling  year. In addition to expanding the team and changing the firm name to better reflect the firm’s vision, the firm had a record year, with principals of the firm advising on sixteen transactions in 2017. Founders also launched a new practice group specializing in the healthcare market. The Healthcare Practice is led by Michael White, a strategic finance professional with operating experience as a chief financial officer and over 20 years’ experience advising healthcare clients on a range of strategic alternatives. Finally, Founders hosted business leaders, owners, executives at several marquee events, including Silicon Y’all.  Founders 5^th annual Silicon Y’all SaaS and Internet Summit is an exclusive event for innovative leaders and investors in the technology space, where participants learn from and engage with both seasoned technology CEOs and investors who represent hundreds of SaaS and Internet portfolio companies.

Highlights of several of Founders’ 2017 transactions are listed below. In some of the transactions, due to competitive sensitivities, the acquirers have requested that some or all of the parties and/or terms of the transactions remain confidential.

• Occupational Health Dynamics, Inc. (OHD) of Birmingham, Alabama was acquired by Schauenburg Group, a prominent family-owned holding company in Germany. OHD provides industrial hygiene instrumentation and services to a variety of occupational safety markets including general industry, manufacturing, first responders, and government. OHD’s world-class management team, innovative culture, and long runway for growth all contributed to a strong investment thesis for the buyer. Schauenburg Group functions as a holding company dedicated to industrial enterprises. The emphasis is on profitable businesses managed by skilled individuals and specializing in niche technologies.
• Circle 8 Crane Services, a leading provider of operated and maintained crane lifting services to the oil and gas, commercial, and industrial markets in the United States, was recapitalized by Trive Capital, a Dallas-based private investment firm. Circle 8 was founded by brothers, Phillip and Allen Bryson in 2007, and now has locations throughout South Texas, West Texas, Houston, East Texas/Louisiana, and Oklahoma. The Company currently has very strong customer relationships and has focused on expanding its reach and adding capabilities to better serve its customers.
• Bravo Food Service, LLC (Bravo), a leading franchisee of Little Caesars in the Southeast, was acquired by Four Foods Group. Bravo was started in 2002 by the Arias family, and through organic growth became one of the nation’s largest Little Caesars franchisees with 48 locations across Central Alabama and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• A leading online marketing company was recapitalized. The company provides partners with a variety of online marketing technology and services to help merchants reach targeted consumer audiences and better monetize their digital customers. The company’s solutions include an affiliate network platform, lead generation, database and email management, display advertising, and traffic monetization.
• A rapidly growing, vertical SaaS company in the healthcare space was recapitalized. The company provides practice management software to a highly fragmented niche of the healthcare industry. Over the past twelve months, the business experienced topline growth of approximately 10% month-over-month and maintained 100%+ MRR retention rates. Due to competitive sensitivities, the acquirers have requested that some of the parties and terms of the transaction remain confidential.
• Retirement Online LLC d/b/a RothIRA.com (Roth IRA) has been acquired by Investopedia, a wholly owned subsidiary of IAC (NASDAQ: IAC). Roth IRA, a leading online retirement education provider, aims to explain and simplify the complicated world of retirement savings.
• Certain assets of Deposits Online, LLC, which does business under the name DepositAccounts.com, a leading consumer-facing media property in the depository industry, have been acquired by LendingTree, Inc. (NASDAQ: TREE).
• A precision manufacturing company with private financial backing acquired a rapidly growing distributor of professional equipment. Following a nationwide search for proprietary acquisition opportunities, our client consummated a transaction yielding $2.0 MM in new annual profit contribution. The investment yielded significantly increased market share, diversification of revenues, and key strategic advantages over competitors.
• MoneyUnder30, a leading personal finance website geared toward ambitious and highly engaged young adults, has been acquired by XLMedia PLC (AIM: XLM), a market-leading provider of digital marketing services with operations in over 20 countries. The acquisition of MoneyUnder30 is firmly in line with XLMedia’s strategy to expand geographically in North America and to expand its footprint in the financial services sector.
• Ion Interactive, an interactive content creation platform, has been acquired by ScribbleLive, the leading SaaS-based content experience platform. Ion Interactive is an enterprise SaaS platform that empowers modern marketers to produce data-driven interactive content at scale and without code. As part of ScribbleLive’s content experience platform, ion interactive gives marketers and content-focused teams new capabilities and opportunities to manage interactive experiences.
• LiveText, a provider of assessment software solutions for higher education, has been acquired by Taskstream-Tk20. LiveText is one of the pioneers of learning engagement technologies and assessment innovations for higher education. Taskstream-Tk20 and LiveText will be the market leader in learning engagement and assessment management solutions to help colleges and universities measure, analyze and report learning data to improve student and institutional outcomes.
• A leading platform of niche review websites was acquired by a vertically focused digital media platform.
• A leading distributor of fuel and lubricants has been acquired by a strategic buyer.
• Another Broken Egg of America (“Another Broken Egg”), a franchising company that operates and franchises full-service restaurant cafes serving southern-inspired breakfast, brunch and lunch options, was recapitalized. Another Broken Egg’s restaurants feature an expanding selection of traditional and innovative menu items ranging from seasonal specialties to handcrafted signature cocktails.
• DAMAC Products, LLC (“DAMAC”), a portfolio company of Chicago based Prairie Capital, was acquired by Maysteel Industries, LLC (“Maysteel”), a portfolio company of Littlejohn Capital, LLC. DAMAC’s data center infrastructure products include server cabinets, wallmount racks, seismic and thermal management products, power distribution equipment and cable runway systems.

 

About Founders Advisors

Founders Advisors (Founders) is a merger, acquisition, & strategic advisory firm serving middle-market companies. Founders’ focus is on energy, SaaS/software, value-added distribution, industrial technology, internet, healthcare, and digital media companies located nationwide, as well as companies based in the Southeast across a variety of industries. Founders’ skilled professionals, proven expertise and process-based solutions help companies access growth capital, make acquisitions, and/or prepare for and execute liquidity events to achieve specific financial goals. In order to provide securities-related services discussed herein, certain principals of Founders are licensed with M & A Securities Group, Inc. or Founders M&A Advisory, LLC, both members of member FINRA & SiPC. M&A Securities Group and Founders are unaffiliated entities. Founders M&A Advisory is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Founders. For more information, please visit www.foundersib.com.