iiNet Acquires Rival ISP Internode in a A$105m Deal, 4.2 times FY12 EBITDA

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22nd Dec 2011. Leading Australian ISP iiNet Limited (ASX: IIN) has entered into binding documentation to acquire Internode Pty Ltd (Internode) and associated companies, Australia’s largest privately owned broadband services company, for $105 million. Based in South Australia, Internode has approximately 260,000 active Internet and phone services, including approximately 190,000 broadband subscribers.

The acquisition, which will be funded through a mixture of cash and scrip, will boost iiNet’s customer base by 190,000, taking its total number of subscribers to just under 900,000 or about 15.5 per cent of the broadband market. Those figures firmly cement iiNet as the clear third force in the Australian telecommunications market behind Telstra and Optus, and places the company within touching distance of current No2 Optus which boasts about one million broadband customers.

The acquisition is the second that iiNet has made in the past month. In late November, it paid $60m to acquire Continue reading →

Electronics Firm Codan Acquires Mining Technology Specialist Minetec for A$10m, approx 5 times EBITDA

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22nd Dec 2011. South Australia-based Codan Limited (ASX: “CDA”) has reached agreement to acquire all of the shares in Perth-based mining communications and technology company, Minetec Pty Ltd (Minetec), from the Company’s founder and partner for an up-front cost of $6 million. The acquisition is scheduled for completion on 3 January 2012, with $4 million in additional payments if certain earn-out targets are achieved over the next two and a half years.

Minetec is forecast to deliver approximately $1 million EBITDA (excluding integration costs) from $9 million of revenue in the six months to 30 June 2012. The acquisition will be funded by Codan’s existing debt facility and is anticipated to be earnings Continue reading →

Infosys BPO Acquires Australian Sourcing Consultants Portland Group for $A37m, 5.7 times EBITDA

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20th Dec 2011. Infosys BPO Limited, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Infosys Limited (NASDAQ: INFY), today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding share capital in Australia-based Portland Group Pty Ltd, a leading provider of strategic sourcing and category management services.

The purchase consideration for the deal is A$37 million, subject to customary post-completion adjustments. According to a report by Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt. Ltd, Portland operates at an Ebitda margin of 21% and a net profit margin of 14.5%, making the deal earnings accretive. Based on these numbers, the price-earnings multiple is Continue reading →

Constellation Software’s Friedman Corp Acquires Australian ERP Firm Markinson

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14th Dec 2011. Friedman Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Constellation Software, Inc. (“Constellation”, TSX: CSU) announces that it has acquired Brisbane-based Markinson Technologies Pty Ltd. Terms for the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Constellation is a very successful, serial acquirer of vertical market software firms such as Markinson, and the acquisition is its most signifiacnt todate in the Australian market, having acquired Melbourne-based lesuire software firm Centamen in 2010, and Australian owned (but US based Viewlocity at the beginning of 2011.

As a result of the purchase, Markinson will become part of Constellation’s Friedman Operating Group, and will operate as an independent Continue reading →

Jacobs Engineering Acquires Australian IT Services Firm Uniqueworld

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2nd Dec 2011. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. (NYSE: JEC) has announced the acquisition of UniqueWorld, an Australian IT services company head officed in Sydney, by its Australian subsidiary, Jacobs Australia Pty Ltd.

In a simultaneous announcement, Uniqueworld shareholder ASX listed Tag Pacific (ASX:TAG) announced that Uniqueworld management had completed a buyout of Uniqueworld’s RecordPoint software business.

Whilst terms for each of the above transactions have not been disclosed, Tag Pacific announced it had received A$5.4m cash for its 38% stake in Uniqueworld Group, valuing both deals at a combined A$14.21m.

For its 38% shareholding, cash proceeds Continue reading →

Amcom Acquires L7 Solutions for A$15m

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23rd Nov 2011. Perth-based Amcom Telecommunications (ASX:AMM) today announced the acquisition of private Perth-based IT services firm L7 Solutions Pty Ltd (L7) for $15m.

L7 is an information technology company, specialising in the provision of IT integration solutions, managed services, advisory and related services.
Established in 2004, L7 has a strong reputation having built its business organically in the Perth market. Now employing 130 staff, with approximately 200 clients across the Enterprise and Government sectors, it generated revenue of $40m in FY11.

Amcom expects the company to generate at least $4 million Continue reading →

NZ’s Datasquirt Sells Its Call Center Software Business For US$12.5 million to LiveOps Inc

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21st Nov, 2011. New Zealand-based Datasquirt Limited (ASX:DSQ) is pleased to announce the conditional sale of its complete business to LiveOps, Inc., a leading US call centre applications provider, for US$12.5 Million, a 37% premium over Datasquirt’s current market capitalization.

Datasquirt has entered into an asset purchase agreement to sell substantially all of the assets of its business to LiveOps. The total consideration is US$12.5 Million in cash, subject to adjustments for working capital. There is no escrow applied to the consideration and any warranty claims by LiveOps must be made with one year and are limited to US$2.5 Million, except for certain title and IP claims.

Datasquirt is ASX listed but has its head office in Auckland and Continue reading →

iiNet Acquires ACTs Transact for A$60m, 3.53 times EBITDA

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21st Nov 2011. Leading Australian ISP iiNet Limited (ASX:IIN) has announced that it has entered into a binding agreement to acquire TransACT Communications Pty Ltd, a leading Canberra‐based telecommunications company, for $60 million. The transaction consists of 100% cash and is debt‐funded.

Completion is subject to a number of procedural conditions and is expected to be achieved by 30 November 2011.

Acquisition Continue reading →

1300 RECORD Receives A$1.5 million Funding From Innovation Capital

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17th Nov 2011. Innovation Capital has announced it has invested a $1.5mn first funding tranche into 1300 RECORD Pty Ltd to fund the establishment of new distribution channels to market the growing Australian-owned cloud communications company.

1300 RECORD gives business the ability to record important phone calls – incoming and outgoing – from any phone, anywhere in Australia. Landline, mobile or VOIP. Calls are recorded digitally and stored securely and indefinitely on the cloud where they can be downloaded, shared via email link, or transcribed to text.

Under Australian law recording of calls is permissible provided Continue reading →

Walmart Acquires Wollongong-based Mobile POS Receipt Startup Grabble

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11th Nov 2011. Walmart Labs, the e-commerce arm of the American retail giant, has acquired Wollongong-based startup point-of-sale development company Grabble. Terms for the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Grabble was started in a garage in Wollongong, Australia by Stuart Argue 29, and Anthony Marcar, 27. Since then they have gained the backing of bootstrap investor Startmate, Australian startup hub, Pollenizer, and US incubator Continue reading →

AVOS / De.licio.us Acquires Aussie Links site Trunk.ly

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9th Nov 2011. AVOS, the company behind the September relaunch of the link-library site De.licio.us, and set up by YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen after it was purchased by Google for $1.76 billion, has announced that it has acquired Australian links site Trunk.ly in order to beef up the renewed service. Terms have not been disclosed.

Trunk.ly saves links more aggressively than Delicious, with an automated aggregation that can collect every link Continue reading →

Sydney Data Modelling Firm Kaggle Raises US$11m in High Profile Series A Finance Round

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5th Nov 2011. Kaggle, a platform for predictive data modeling competitions, has raised $11 million in Series A financing led by Index Ventures and Khosla Ventures. SV Angel, Yuri Milner’s Start Fund, Stanford Management Company, which invests and manages Stanford University’s endowment and other financial assets, PayPal Founder Max Levchin; Google Chief Economist Hal Varian; and Applied Semantics’ Co-Founder and Factual Chief Executive Officer Gil Elbaz, all participated in the round as well.

Founded in Melbourne, Australia, Kaggle recently moved to San Francisco and is currently in a phase of rapid expansion following its fundraising.
The start-up was founded by Anthony Goldbloom, 28, who previously Continue reading →

Perth’s Filter Squad closes A$1.1m Investment Round led by Yuuwa Capital

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27th Oct 2011. Yuuwa Capital has led a new $1.1m funding round into Perth-based App developer – Filter Squad Pty Ltd – creators of the wildly popular Discovr range of iOS applications.

Discovr lets you find music by entering an artist you like in the search field. Based on that artist, the app will show you an interactive map of potential songs and artists you would enjoy. And believe it or not, the company is seeing the most traction from neither Australia, nor the US. It’s coming from Japan.

Filter Squad has concurrently announced the official launch of Discovr Music for the Mac App Store.

“We’ve had more than a million downloads Continue reading →

Former UNSW Researcher Sells Social Analytics Firm Julpan to Twitter for est US$40m+

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21st Sept 2011. Twitter has acquired Julpan, a social search company founded by former University of NSW researcher Ori Allon, who is credited with the creation of the Google Orion Search Engine.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, however the Sydney Morning Herald has reported Mr Allons’ UNSW PHd supervisor and a Julpan technical adviser, Dr Eric Martin, as saying the deal eclipsed the $40m Twitter paid for TweetDeck in May 2011.

The new add-on will help Twitter better-organize its tweeting stream and make search and updates more relevant.

Ori Allon, an Israeli computer scientist, moved to Australia in 2002 to study at Melbourne’s Monash University. He then moved on to the University of NSW in Sydney, where funded by a grant from the Australian Research Council, he completed his PhD in 2009. Google acquired his patented thesis work called Orion, beating Continue reading →

Resources Software Firm QMASTOR recommends Triple Point bid of A$26.2m, 94% Share Price Premium, 9.4xEBITDA

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13th Sept 2011. Following its 23rd June 23 cents a share A$19.3m bid, rejected by QMASTOR’s board, US-based commodity trading software company Triple Point Technology has made official its improved 31 cents a share $26.2m offer for industrial software developer QMASTOR (ASX:QML).

The new offer is a 94% premium to the QML closing share price on June 22, the day prior to the announcement of Triple Point’s takeover offer.
In August, QMASTOR announced record revenue for FY2011 of $12.8m ($7.3M FY2010) up 75% on the FY2010 result. Forecast revenue for FY12 was advised of $20m. The company posted Continue reading →

UXC Completes A$61m Sale of Field Solutions Group To Focus on IT Services

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8th Sept 2011. IT services company UXC Limited (ASX:UXC) has completed the divestment of its Field Solutions Group to investment firm Cashel House for $61 million on a debt free, agreed cash basis.

Simultaneously, UXC has announced FY11 results for its ongoing IT Services business; with IT revenue growing by 11% to $522 million, and underlying EBITDA up by 7% to $33 million.

The purchasing entity for the Field Solutions Group is Utility Services Group, which will be owned by Cashel House, Service Stream (ASX:SSM) founding CEO Patrick Flannigan, and other investors including members of the acquired business’ management team. Financial support to USG is provided principally by Westpac Banking Corporation.

Patrick Flannigan who more recently had been the Head of Construction for the National Broadband Network Company, had been hired by UXC Continue reading →

SAP to Acquire NZ 3-D Software Firm Right Hemisphere

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9th Sept 2011. Enterprise software firm SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) has announced it will acquire Right Hemisphere, a leading provider of visual enterprise solutions based in San Ramon, California, and Auckland, New Zealand. The purchase price has not been disclosed.

Founded in 1997 by kiwi Mark Thomas, Right Hemisphere is a privately held corporation based in Silicon Valley and Auckland, New Zealand. Its head office was relocated from New Zealand to the US in 2004. The company has received over $50m Continue reading →

e-Pay Asia To Go To Euronet after Tobikiri Capital Fails to Match A$12m Bid

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6th Sept 2011. e-Pay Asia (ASX:EPY) has received a fourth (and likely final) buyout offer, from Euronet Worldwide for A$12 million, topping the most recent bid received from rival Tobikiri Capital. Tobikiri Pacital is a company controlled by Mr Simon Loh, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of e-Pay.

In May 2010, e-Pay Asia called off a deal to sell its business interests for $7 million and a return to shareholders of 17 cents per share. In April 2011, e-Pay Asia had provisionally accepted an A$8.5m bid from Tobikiri Capital, but Continue reading →

Photon Sells UK Division Retail Insight to US Firm Retail Solutions for $US 11m

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5th Sept 2011. Photon Group Limited (ASX:PGA) today announced the sale of a UK business unit, Retail Insight Limited, which provides point-of-sale data services to UK suppliers. The unit was sold to Retail Solutions Inc, a US venture capital backed retail software company for total consideration of US$11 million.

The proceeds from the asset sale (net of transaction costs, taxes and US$1 million held in escrow for warranties) will be applied to debt repayment. Photon’s debt balance at the end of September 2011 is expected to be $120 million. A further $13 million of capped cash deferred consideration payments are expected to be paid over the next 12 months.

The divestment is expected to crystalise Continue reading →

Automotive Software Firm Infomedia Acquires UK’s Different Aspect Software for £3.174m

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2 September 2011. International automotive software developer, ASX-listed Infomedia (IFM) announced today that it has acquired 100% of the share capital of Different Aspect Software Ltd (DAS), of Cumbria, England. A UK based software developer specialises in the provision of IT application solutions to the automotive industry.

The acquisition price was £3,174,000 and was fully funded by a foreign currency cash advance facility. Under a share purchase agreement Infomedia has acquired the entire Company including all intellectual property rights and its contracts.

The acquisition provides Infomedia with Continue reading →