In a prepared statement, Exact CEO Erik van der Meijden said, "We are looking forward to accelerating and expanding our strategy together with Apax to become one of the leading companies for cloud-based business software for small and medium-sized businesses and their accountants." The company has been rolling out the cloud-based Exact Online, introduced along with advanced modules in this country in the last year. Exact has said it will utilize manufacturing products in the United States—Macola, JobBoss and Max—in reaching the market for Exact Online. For the first time in years, Macola has publicized general plans to expand its channel, with public details said to follow sometime this year. The rest of the accounting software vendors owned by private equity include Unit4, Deltek, Aptean, Abila and Infor and the related HighJump Software
APAX TO PAY NEARLY $1B FOR EXACT Featured
Another ERP vendor is falling under private equity ownership. Exact has agreed to recommend selling its shares to Eiger Acquisition, a subsidiary of funds advised by Apax Partners, which already owns Epicor in a deal worth about $959 million; slightly more than half in equity financing and the rest in debt. Exact, which had previously said it had rejected takeover approaches, said it accepted the offer in order to develop as a global cloud company, and will expand with its existing markets and into new countries.
