Two successful company sales last six months

Being a board professional is an exciting and dynamic occupation, as the aim of the assignment from time to time is to sell the company, and handover the board responsibility to the new owners. Out of ten companies in my board portfolio, I have over the last six months experienced two successful company sales to other industrial players, which testify valuable companies with continued growth potential.

CDRator sold to Enghouse Systems

Most recently, the mobile billing software company CDRator A/S was sold to Enghouse Systems Limited that is a publicly traded Canadian based software and services company. Enghouse serves a number of distinct vertical markets through its three divisions, Interactive, Networks and Transportation, each developing and selling enterprise oriented applications software. CDRator is now part of the Networks division.

On March 3 2015, Enghouse Systems Limited announced that it has acquired CDRator A/S for a purchase price of approximately $23.0 million (net of acquired cash). CDRator’s annual revenue for fiscal 2014 was just over $20.0 million. CDRator has approximately 130 staff primarily based in Denmark who support their customer base in Europe, North America and Africa.

Having served on the board of CDRator A/S for five years, I am proud of this successful and promising exit. I wish both Enghouse Systems and CDRator’s management and staff the best of luck for their joint future.

EQT sold Ventelo to Phonero

In July last year, the private equity firm EQT announced the sale of the Norwegian mobile company Ventelo AS to the Norwegian competitor Phonero AS, and the deal was successfully closed in October 2014. It was a synergistic fit, matching the large business customers of Ventelo with the small and midsized business customers of Phonero, and on-top adding Ventelo’s virtual mobile network infrastructure to Phonero’s service provider platform. The two companies merged under the Phonero brand effective as of January 2015 with a combined revenue of 1 billion NOK.

The Norwegian telecom market currently experiences a consolidation trend, and with this acquisition, Phonero obtained 15% business market share and became a strong challenger to the two big operators Telenor and the Telia owned NetCom. Ventelo was the mobile company within EQT’s Broadnet Holding AS, and the divestment made it possible for EQT to focus purely on the Broadnet fiber and datacom business in Norway.

Having served on the board of Ventelo AS for almost two years, I am proud of this successful private equity exit. I look forward to follow the future of the new Phonero.