"We are particularly proud of our role in this transaction,” said Ken Marlin, Founder and Managing Partner of Marlin & Associates. "Brainpower is a great company, with innovative people and technology. Bloomberg is one of the world’s leading providers of data, news and analytics. The strategic fit with Bloomberg is tremendous, and we were pleased to have helped make this marriage a reality.”
Brainpower is headquartered in the Netherlands with R&D headquarters in Switzerland. More than 100 of Europe’s most sophisticated investment-management firms rely on Brainpower's products to analyze their portfolios and securities holdings.
Marlin & Associates initiated this transaction, assisted in the negotiations and acted as the exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Brainpower. The deal valued Brainpower at a premium of about 59% to Brainpower's volume weighted average trading price during the three months prior to announcement of the Tender. In addition, Bloomberg agreed to assume certain liabilities. The total price was about five times Brainpower’s reported revenue for the prior calendar year.
Rocco Pellegrinelli, CEO and Founder of Brainpower, adds: “The Marlin & Associates contribution was critical to achieve our objectives. Their deep industry sector knowledge, attention to details and very focused and proactive attitude throughout the whole process enabled us to maximize shareholders’ value.”
“We have seen a significant increase in middle-market M&A activity in this sector over the past two years.” Marlin continued. “Many of these firms look to us for strategic and financial advice. They want someone who has been there before, who has in-depth knowledge of the territory, industry, buyers, values, and human dimensions. They want someone who can help them through every stage of the process.”
Over the past year, Marlin & Associates has been the exclusive strategic and financial advisor to 10 financial technology-related firms that successfully entered into strategic transactions. In addition to the Brainpower transaction, these include:
- Cameron Systems (Vic) of Sydney, Australia, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to Orc Software of Stockholm, Sweden (STO: ORC).
- Derivative Solutions, of Chicago, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to FactSet Research Systems (NYSE:FDS).
- Beauchamp Financial Technology Ltd. ("BFT") of London, England, which Marlin and Associates advised on its sale to Linedata Services of Paris, France (PA:"LIN").
- Global Securities Information ("GSI"), of Washington D.C., which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to the Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC).
- Interactive Technologies, Inc. of Summit, NJ, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to Fiserv (NASDAQ: FISV).
- europrospectus.com, of East Sussex, UK, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to FactSet Research Systems (NYSE: FDS).
