Key Transactions

Tech giant Accenture announced the acquisition of Oakland-based management consulting services firm Future State, for $45M.

Happiest Minds Technologies acquired US-based Pimcore Global Services for $8.25 million. The acquisition will help create greater digital capital for customers and facilitate onboarding more customer logos of strategic consequence.

Luxembourg-based Globant acquired Spanish cloud and digital transformation services company Grupo Assa for $62M to broaden its expertise in Life Sciences, CPG, Manufacturing and Logistics. With this acquisition, Globant broadens its expertise in Life Sciences, CPG, Manufacturing and Logistics.

GlobalSCAPE was picked up by HelpSystems to augment its data security business, valuing the company at about $178M, 5.4 times revenue. Globalscape's cloud-based and on-premise solutions that help organizations secure movement, automation, and integration of data both in and out of the cloud would augment HelpSystems' data security business.

In August, Bain Capital acquired HSO Group for $1 billion. HSO is a leading Microsoft-partnered digital transformation services provider with expertise in business and AI transformation, cloud and AI application integration and enterprise support. The deal underscores strong private equity interest in scalable IT services platforms, particularly those closely aligned with Microsoft’s enterprise ecosystem. 

"Anti-phishing acquirers strike a second time in three weeks, as a pair of private equity firms, Pamplona Capital Management and BlackRock Capital, acquire Cofense, formerly known as PhishMe. The company is renaming itself to Cofense, to reflect its pursuit of a strategy that goes beyond anti-phishing and security awareness offerings to integrate intelligence in exploits of human behavior with security operations.

"BlackBerry hands over $1.4bn in cash for endpoint security provider Cylance. The acquirer has made a shift from mobile devices to enterprise software and services, with a strong focus on cybersecurity. As tracked by 451 Research’s M&A Knowledge Base, this is BlackBerry’s largest deal to date, and further illustrates the changing dynamic of the endpoint market in general, with enterprises seeing usage – and threats – growing both in terms of mobile devices and traditional endpoints.

"'Bomgar has become a key competitor in the secure remote and privileged access management markets, driven by its innovative platform of secure access solutions and steadfast commitment to customer service excellence'...'We see an opportunity to build upon Bomgar’s impressive technology and enthusiastic customer base to rapidly expand their product portfolio and market presence. We are excited to partner with the entire Bomgar team to grow the business and explore new market opportunities.'" Acquirer press release, 4/3/18.