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- Climb's M&A Weekly: TPG, Sabre, and WestView Capital all feature
Climb's M&A Weekly: TPG, Sabre, and WestView Capital all feature
TPG buys hospitality business from Sabre and WestView makes growth investment
Nick @ Climb
May 04, 2025
Welcome back to the Climb Advisors weekly newsletter with five deals from across the B2B tech landscape.
Climb Advisors focuses on sell-side advisory for B2B Software and services companies generating $5m-$15m in revenue. We also advise on credit solutions for companies of the same profile & in select cases engage in retained buy-side processes for quality buyers. We love to talk markets and make introductions - please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re a founder or investor looking to transact.
TPG acquires the hospitality solutions business of Sabre
Overview: TPG announces it is buying the hospitality solutions business of Sabre, a technology provider to the hospitality industry, for $1.1 billion. TPG makes the purchase in all cash through its private equity arm, TPG Capital. The hospitality solutions business of Sabre provides software solutions to many of the top global hotel brands. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Sabre was originally created by American Airlines in 1960 as a service to connect airlines and hotels with travel agents. The company IPO’d in 2014 and its share price peaked at ~$29 shortly thereafter. Recently, the stock has been trading at ~$2.50. Sabre isn’t profitable and rising interest payments are an issue. In 2024, the company had interest expenses of $509 million, up from $209 million in 2022. Sabre’s D/E ratio is currently 3.5x, another large increase from a few years ago. Sabre is trying to sell off non-core assets to pay down its debt, after refinancing large amounts of debt in December 2024.
Apex Group Technologies makes majority investment in MapsPeople A/S
Overview: Apex Group Technologies, backed by Round 13 Capital, acquires 51% of MapsPeople, with the option to acquire up to 64%. MapsPeople is an interactive indoor mapping solution. MapsPeople will no longer be listed after the deal with Apex injecting DKK 39 million into the company. Read more here.
Climb Comment: After the deal, the chairman of MapsPeople said he believes the company will benefit from being private because the public market did not have proper pricing. MapsPeople’s stock price has not benefitted from the growth of the company mostly due to lack of trading volume. The company is illiquid and feels it is in the best interest of the shareholders to be acquired and become a private company. Normally a management team that feels its stock is undervalued should be buying back as much stock as possible, but Apex Group’s offer does represent ~42% premium to what MapsPeople was trading at. This is a good deal for MapsPeople shareholders and a nice deal for Apex, which intends to drive organic growth with AI implementation and explore inorganic growth opportunities.
AngelList acquires an AI-powered contract review company
Overview: AngelList, a backend solutions provider for startups, acquires Tome, an AI-powered contract review platform. This acquisition will merge Tome’s AI and document review capabilities with AngelList’s existing backend solutions for venture capitalists and founders. AngelList has over 12,000 startups on its platform, with 85,000 investors, and $124B in assets. Read more here.
Climb Comment: Legal is a core market for AI due to new ability to review contracts in seconds. Tome’s tool uses AI to help founders review long legal documents to limit mistakes, save time, and focus on actually running their business. This should fit perfectly with AngelList’s solutions for founders and looks to be a great fit all around.
WestView Capital Partners acquires a majority stake in HOIST
Overview: WestView Capital Partners makes a growth investment in HOIST, a systems and services platform for IFS’s enterprise software. HOIST helps to implement and support IFS’s suite of enterprise software and its AI applications. IFS is a provider of industrial AI and enterprise software, including its IFS Cloud, a fully AI-powered platform. Read more here.
Climb Comment: WestView Capital manages ~$2.5 billion and invests in growth-oriented B2B services & tech as well as consumer & industrial. HOIST benefits from the growth and global penetration of IFS, an ‘industrial AI’ ERP with asset management & field service capabilities. IFS did €1B in ARR last year. WestView is looking to help HOIST scale their 200+ employees in five global regions alongside the secular growth of IFS.
Cantey Tech Consulting expands its consulting presence
Overview: Cantey Tech Consulting, an IT managed services provider for small and mid-sized businesses, expands its reach in the southeast with its acquisition of SmartTech Consulting, a South Carolina-based provider of IT managed services. Cantey Tech, based in Charleston, has a broad range of IT managed services, and does a lot of work in the Southeast where it can maintain a high level of responsiveness. Read more here.
Climb Comment: This is Cantey Tech’s fourth acquisition, all of which have been companies based in the Southeast US. This geographical focus allows Cantey to provide a more personalized experience to its client base of small and mid-sized businesses. This acquisition of SmartTech fits this approach and offers a suite of new capabilities to existing SmartTech clients.
Article of the week
Warren Buffett announced his retirement this weekend at the Berkshire annual meeting. You can watch the full morning session here. Buffett began serving as Chair in 1970 and leaves the business sitting on more than $300B in cash and a $1.16T market cap. Here he discusses finding exceptional stocks in Japan by reading directories —
“It’s amazing what you can find when you just turn the page… turn every page. And I would say that turning every page is one important ingredient to bring to the investment field. And that very few people do... And the ones who turn every page, they aren’t going to tell you what they’re finding, so you gotta do a little of it yourself.”
Thanks for following along & hope you found something useful or interesting. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’re considering a sale this year - we’re always glad to chat & share perspective.
All the best,
Nick