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- Climb's M&A Weekly: Apple, Almaviva and Aptean all feature
Climb's M&A Weekly: Apple, Almaviva and Aptean all feature
Apple acquires Adobe competitor, a significant merger in the printing services space and Aptean expands its presence in the supply chain software space
Nick @ Climb
November 10, 2024
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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.
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Almaviva expands global smart mobility reach with $355M deal for Iteris
Overview: Almaviva, an Italian information and communications firm has finalized a $355m deal for Iteris, a U.S. based cloud company specializing in smart mobility and infrastructure management. Almaviva’s offer of $7.20 per share was backed by a €725 million bond issuance on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s Euro MTF market, set to mature in 2030. As a result of the acquisition, Almaviva’s intention is to bring its Moova platform to the North American market. Iteris’ expertise in detection technology, data solutions, SaaS offerings, and advisory services is expected to complement Almaviva’s existing capabilities, allowing the Italian firm to expand its role in global smart mobility. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Iteris serves more than 10,000 government agencies & commercial clients with connected infrastructure solutions — smart sensors that relay traffic time info, traffic light timing sensors, pedestrian/cyclist safety solutions and more. Iteris has strong solutions and a scaled customer base - Almaviva brings expertise from the relatively more advanced European smart mobility market. Kudos to all.
Apple announces a deal for editing software company Pixelmator
Overview: Apple has acquired Pixelmator, a Lithuania based company known for its popular image editing tools on macOS and iOS, including Pixelmator Pro and Photomator, which have become widely used alternatives to Adobe Photoshop. With this acquisition, Apple aims to strengthen its creative software offerings by integrating Pixelmator's 17 years of design expertise into the iOS ecosystem. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Great outcome for Pixelmator, who have carved out a position as a viable prosumer alternative to Adobe Photoshop at a far lower price point. For now, there will be no material changes to the app, but in the past Apple has folded acquisitions such as Dark Sky Weather & Workflow into their own native apps, so good chance that there is a longer term view to integrate core tech into IOS offerings.
Aptean strengthens supply chain solutions with acquisition of Indigo Software
Overview: Aptean, a leader in the mission critical software space, has announced the acquisition of Indigo Software, a firm that provides logistics and warehouse software solutions. The acquisition aims to expand Aptean’s offerings for manufacturers, wholesalers and 3PLs. With nearly 45 years of experience, Indigo Software has a strong track record of dealing with warehousing and logistics needs. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Vista-backed Aptean offers a wide range of solutions around ERP, asset management, manufacturing execution, and most of the other tech needed to run the critical aspects of an enterprise, especially businesses which interface with the real-world via manufacturing or services. Here they deepen capabilities into warehouse management with the addition of Indigo, who offer a single interface platform to manage all the key aspects of a warehouse, from monitoring stocking levels to allocating resources and tracking inventory flow.
Printful and Printify announce merger
Overview: Printful and Printify, both Latvian startups that provide custom printing services and have announced a merger. While financial details of the merger were not disclosed, metrics from each company provide insight into their current scale. Printful, founded in 2013, fulfilled over a million items monthly at one time, while Printify, established in 2015, has shipped more than 60 million orders to date. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Interesting to see two deals out of the Baltics this week, may point to more to come. With Printful having raised $130 million in private equity funding and Printify securing over $54 million, both companies have substantial backing. Later stage funding has been difficult for European companies and this merger will offer economies of scale & likely position the combined entity for future exit - whether that is to large-cap private equity, corporate strategic, or directly to the public markets.
Serve Robotics strengtens autonomous solutions by acquiring Vebu
Overview: Serve Robotics, an autonomous delivery company based in San Francisco, has acquired Vebu, a robotics and automation solutions provider for the restaurant industry. This acquisition strengthens Serve's position by expanding its capabilities to include back-of-house automation, aiming to increase value for restaurant partners. Vebu’s partnerships with household brands like Chipotle will complement Serve’s existing collaborations with Shake Shack and 7-Eleven. This deal is expected to drive broader adoption of Serve’s AI-powered solutions. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Vebu is the manufacturer of the ‘Autocado’ robot, which enables employees to pour up to 25 lbs of avocados in and return a few minutes later to find them skinned, cored, and ready to turn into guacamole. This tool is in pilot production at a California Chipotle location and could potentially save millions of dollars in annual labor/food waste costs across stores for Chipotle and others. Vebu founder Buck Jordan will join Serve as SVP of Kitchen Automation, likely leading to further efforts in the space. This was announced as an all-stock transaction. This week Serve announced $220k of revenue for Q3 and a cash balance of $50m, with market cap ~$383m. Exciting play for all involved & plenty of room to grow.
Article of the week
We enjoyed Battery Ventures discussion here of what they are calling ‘the coming AI Market Supercycle’. Insightful & data-driven read by some of the best in the business. They dive into AI-driven ‘value based pricing’, what the boom means for cloud providers (up to $2 trillion in potential additional revenue in the next 5 years (!)), and more.
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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