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- Climb's M&A Weekly: Nokia and Red Hat all feature
Climb's M&A Weekly: Nokia and Red Hat all feature
Europe's largest asset manager completes acquisition, IBM's software subsidiary Red Hat enhances AI offerings, and AppDirect continues its M&A strategy.
Nick @ Climb
November 17, 2024
Welcome to Climb Advisor’s weekly deal newsletter highlighting transactions announced last week across the B2B tech landscape. Some large transactions announced this week!
Climb Advisors is an M&A and credit advisory firm focused on B2B software and services companies in the range of $5m to $100m+ enterprise value. We guide CEOs and business owners through the process of selling their business & assist investors in sourcing & closing great deals. We love to talk markets and share beneficial information - please reach out any time.
Amundi finalizes €149 million acquisition of fintech leader aixigo
Overview: Amundi, Europe's largest asset management company has completed a deal for German fintech aixigo. Aixigo’s efficient API platform enables the quick integration of its services into banks and financial intermediaries. With a team of 150 professionals, aixigo serves over 20 international financial institutions managing assets exceeding €1 trillion. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Amundi manages more than $2T in assets, and currently serves a number of banks, pension funds and private lenders across Europe and Asia with solutions around portfolio & wealth management and employee savings and retirement. The aixigo acquisition will enhance Amundi’s solutions around savings products, provide technological benefit and expand market reach into leading institutions in Western Europe. Amundi has messaged that they expect to achieve a 3 year ROI of >10% on the €149m investment.
Silverfort boosts identity security solutions with the acquisition of Rezonate
Overview: Silverfort, a Boston based provider of identity security solutions, has announced the acquisition of Rezonate, a firm which bolsters security solutions for cloud environments. The combined solution is expected to be launched by mid 2025. Read more here.
Climb Comment: This acquisition highlights Silverfort's commitment to offering a comprehensive security framework that protects identities across diverse digital ecosystems, such on-premises systems, cloud identity providers, cloud infrastructure, and SaaS applications. By integrating Rezonate’s platform, Silverfort aims to deliver a unified identity protection platform - critical in today’s evolving landscape.
AppDirect expands its reach in the IT lifecycle solutions sector
Overview: AppDirect, a world-renowned B2B subscription commerce platform, has announced its intention to acquire vCom Solutions, a leader in IT lifecycle management solutions. A standout aspect of this deal is vCom’s QuantumShift wholesale buyers' club, which delivers a turnkey solution spanning hardware, cloud, SaaS, and other technology services. Read more here.
Climb Comment: AppDirect continues to execute on an ambitious M&A strategy, building on previous acquisitions of marketplace platform BuiltFirst and managed services provider VEEUE. This acquisition will enable AppDirect to integrate vCom's AI-powered IT spend management & procurement software, enabling streamlined purchasing behavior. Continued shift for enterprise platforms looking to expand stack into both offering services/functionalities and driving true cost-savings for end users.
Nokia acquires API hub Rapid, once valued at $1 billion
Overview: Nokia has acquired Rapid, a leading API hub and marketplace based out of San Francisco, as part of its strategy to enhance revenue streams from its 5G and 4G networks. Previously Rapid has raised $273 million in venture funding at valuations as high as $1B from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz. Read more here.
Climb Comment: This acquisition includes Rapid's technology and R&D unit, enabling Nokia's clients to better integrate their networks, manage API usage, and collaborate with the developer community. Rapid has built more than 40,000 API connections - Nokia will aim to use these and other assets to create a developer-friendly platform bridging telecom & tech. Nokia, once the leading mobile manufacturer, ‘missed the boat’ on the smartphone wave - interesting to see them now look to make a play back towards the network side.
Red Hat acquires AI startup Neural Magic
Overview: Red Hat, an IBM subsidiary software company, has finalized its acquisition of Neural Magic, a startup specializing in AI optimization software that enables machine learning models to run efficiently on commodity CPUs. This strategic move aims to enhance Red Hat's capabilities in delivering AI solutions that are both cost-effective and scalable, capitalizing on Neural Magic's expertise in optimizing deep learning models. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Interesting deal at the intersection of AI & spend management - with Neural Magic offering a solution to run LLMs more efficiently. This integration will bolster Red Hat's offerings in the AI and machine learning domains and providecustomers with more accessible and efficient AI deployment options across cloud environments. Similar to AppDirect above - software enterprises are looking to prove value to customers by not only offering functional solutions but also inserting themselves into the pricing equation to drive efficiency.
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Article of the week
This week we are sharing the famous ‘Mauboussin Papers’; published in 2022 by Morgan Stanley’s Michael J. Mauboussin & Dan Callahan. The 85 page doc is considered to be one of the best guides written around capital allocation - the most critical management function. The paper covers the flows of capital into and out of organizations, alternatives to reinvestment and more. Interesting to note from the article is that in the 90s and 2000s 9 out of 10 public companies participated in at least one M&A deal. Worth a read!
Thanks for following along & hope you found something useful or interesting. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re considering a sale as we move towards 2025 - we’re always glad to chat & share perspective.
All the best,
Nick