Private equity firm Thoma Cressey Bravo has agreed to acquire 58% of Hyland Software, developer of OnBase document management software. The firm paid $265 million in the deal, including $150 million in equity. Hyland’s current management will retain their ownership in the company, which is roughly 20%. (see article)
Well it appears that consolidation through acquisition in the ECM market is not going to slow down. However, this move by Hyland changes the game a bit. For several years the ECM “big boys”, (e.g. EMC Documentum, OpenText and Autonomy – to name a few) have been making acquisitions in a race to grow functionality and market share (the most recent of these was blogged about just a few days ago). Industry analysts have been focusing on Hyland, a major player in the second tier (targeting SMEs) DM space, as a potential acquisition target.
With this infusion of cash, Hyland has changed the rules of that game, and will likely be on the acquiring end of any acquisitions it is involved in moving forward, at least in the nearfuture. The interesting question that remains is who is Hyland likely to target – software companies with complementary technology/vertical expertise, or current resellers’ channel partners? The good news for current OnBase customers is that disruption of their world is not in the foreseeable future.
