Highlight:

  • CD and amp;R comes with significant expertise and experience in investing in the industrial sector that accounts for most of Epicor’s customer base.

Epicor Software is getting closer to a brand-new private-equity home as KKR gives consent to sell the business software firm at a whopping USD 4.7 billion to Clayton Dubilier and amp; Rice.

Details of the deal

The deal is cracked four years later of KKR acquiring Epicor from British private-equity firm Apax Partners for USD 3.3 billion.

Based out of Austin, Texas, Epicor deals with delivering back-office and sales software to 20,000 plus customers in sectors such as retail, manufacturing, and distribution. Under the ownership of KKR, the company made several acquisitions. It cracked deals such as 1 EDI Source, the electronic-data interchange software producer, and Majure Data, a warehouse-management software provider.

As per The Wall Street Journal, Clayton Dubilier and amp; Rice has “significant experience investing in the industrial sector, from which most of Epicor’s customer base hails. In addition to software and tech services, the firm does deals in the consumer and retail and health-care sectors.”

Operating Partner at CD and amp;R Jeff Hawn mentioned in a news release, “Epicor’s reputation for quality and performance, and its impressive portfolio of next-generation cloud products, position the company well to accelerate growth in the coming years.”

He further added that the company looks forward to partnering with the Epicor management team to further expand Epicor’s product offerings and strategic acquisitions focused on meeting evolving customer needs for digital transformation.

Clayton Dubilier and amp; Rice leverages operating partners, executives with experience in senior leadership roles at global corporations to help the company assess deals and deliver strategic advice.

Hawn, designated as the Epicor Board Chairman, has served as the CEO of Quest Software.

Epicor’s solutions offer enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, customer relationship management, and human capital management software. The products offered by the company can be availed as SaaS (software-as-a-service) and on-premises.

Apax took over Epicor and a peer dubbed as Activant Solutions Inc., back in 2011 and then merged the two entities. As per CD and amp;R, Epicor’s revenue mix comprises 73% recurring revenue, including the SaaS business growth rate at 60% year-to-date.

“Companies such as Epicor that generate recurring revenue through business software sales have been popular targets for the private equity industry,” said Reuters.