The story
History
In 1972, Ronald Mourad Cohen and Maurice Tchénio founded the advisory firm Multinational Management Group (MMG) in London, Paris, and Chicago, marking the beginning of Apax Partners. In 1977, they formed a partnership with early venture capitalist Alan Patricof, who founded Patricof & Co in New York in 1969. The new firm would be known as Alan Patricof Associates (APA) and ultimately come to be known as Apax Partners (apax means "unique" in classical Greek).
Throughout the 1980s, the firm grew steadily raising capital under a series of separate funds.
In 1991, Apax Partners became the official name for all of its European operations however the U.S. business still operated under the Patricof & Co. name. By the mid-1990s Apax had become one of the larger private equity firms globally.
In 2001, Patricof & Co. adopted the Apax Partners branding and formalized its affiliation with its European business. In 2002, Apax Partners LLP was established.
In 2005, Apax announced it would acquire middle market leveraged buyout firm Saunders Karp & Megrue to augment its buyout business in the United States. In March 2006, Alan Patricof left Apax.
In 2006, Apax Partners in London and Apax Partners France in Paris became independent. Apax Partners France rebranded to Seven2 in 2023.
2010–2014
In January 2010, Apax Partners acquired 76.8% of Israel-based Psagot Investment House for $570 million.
In April 2010, Apax Partners announced acquisition of TIVIT.
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In May 2010, Apax Partners acquired a 70% stake in Sophos for $580 million.
On 25 March 2011 Apax Partners announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to purchase Trader Corporation (“Trader”) from Yellow Media for a purchase price consideration of $745 million.
On 23 December 2011 Apax Partners announced acquisition of the Swiss branch of Orange.
In February 2012, Apax sold HiT Entertainment to Mattel for $680 million.
On 11 June 2012 an Apax-led consortium announced acquisition of Paradigm Ltd.
In September 2012, Apax Partners forms consortium with CEO Stephen Cretier for GardaWorld Security Services.
In November 2012, Apax Partners agrees to acquire Cole Haan and completes acquisition 4 February 2013.
On 21 January 2014 Apax bought out the remaining 50.1% share of Trader Media from the Guardian Media Group.
On 9 October 2014 Apax announced that they will acquire Dutch software maker Exact. It closed the transaction in April 2015.
On 8 December 2014 Apax announced that it had entered into a transaction agreement to acquire 100% of the shares of EVRY.
2015–2019
In May 2015, Apax Partners agreed to purchase Quality Distribution, a Tampa, Florida–based chemical transport and logistics firm, for $800 million, including assumption of debt. The deal was completed in August 2015.
In July 2015, Apax bought 100% of Spanish real estate web portal idealista.
In December 2015, Apax Partners agreed to sell Rhiag-Inter Auto Parts Italia SpA to LKQ Corporation for $1.14 billion.
On 19 July 2016 Apax Partners agrees to acquire Boats Group. Formerly Dominion Marine Media ("DMM"), a subsidiary of Landmark Media Enterprises.
On 23 August 2017 funds advised by Apax Partners announced a definitive agreement to acquire ThoughtWorks, a global software development and digital transformation consulting company.
In September 2017, Tom Chapman and Ruth Chapman sold a majority stake in Matchesfashion.com to private-equity funds managed by Apax Partners.
In May 2018, Apax Partners purchased the network services provider Expereo from The Carlyle Group.
In January 2019, Apax Partners invested US$200 million in Fractal Analytics.
In May 2019, Apax Partners purchased New Zealand e-commerce company Trade Me for $1.7 billion.
In July 2019, funds advised by Apax Partners acquired Baltic Classifieds Group, a business owning a portfolio of portals in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
2020–2024
In April 2020, Apax Partners finalized the purchase of Coalfire, a cybersecurity firm.
In June 2020, Apax invested $100 million in Payfone, a software and data analytics firm, today known as Prove Identity and based in New York.
In September 2020, Apax sold their majority stake in idealista, the Spanish real-estate web portal, to EQT AB, for a sum of EUR1.3 billion, achieving a quintuple return on its 2015 investment of EUR235 million.
In Dec 2020, Azentio Software Private Limited, subsidiary of Apax Partners, buys global software products business of 3i Infotech for Rs. 1000 Cr
In January 2021, Apax acquired PIB Group, a specialist insurance company, together with PIB's management team.
In February 2021, Apax reinvested in idealista, acquiring a 17% stake in the web portal for EUR250 million.
In February 2021, Apax acquired a majority stake in Herjavec Group, a global managed security services provider led by founder and CEO Robert Herjavec, who retained a significant stake.
In March 2021, Apax Partners acquired Rodenstock, a German manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses and spectacle frames, for EUR1.5 billion.
In March 2021, Apax also agreed to acquire Lutech, an IT service company in Italy, from One Equity Partners.
In May 2021, Apax acquired Texas based, pet food company Nulo.
In June 2021, Apax acquired Infogain, a Silicon Valley–based company in the digital transformation and software services sector, from the private equity firm ChrysCapital.
In August 2021, Apax acquired EveryAction from Insight Partners and Social Solutions from Vista Equity Partners, combining them with CyberGrants, a company it agreed to acquire in June from Waud Capital Partners. Vista kept a minority stake in the combined company, which will have annual revenue of over $200 million.
In September 2021, Apax joined with Warburg Pincus to acquire T-Mobile Netherlands Holding B.V., today known as Odido, in a transaction valuing the company at an enterprise value of EUR5.1 billion.
In September 2021, Apax also acquired SavATree, a horticultural service provider, based in New York.
In October 2021, Apax agreed to acquire the homeowner services group of American Water Works for $1.27 billion.
In November 2021, UK satellite firm Inmarsat, partially owned by Apax, agreed to be acquired by Viasat for $7.3 billion.
In December 2021, Apax sold Unilabs, a European medical diagnostics company acquired from Nordic Capital and Apax Partners France, today known as Seven2, in 2016, to A.P. Moller Holding, the owner of Maersk.
In November 2021 Apax acquired NGP VAN for $2 billion. NGP VAN through Mobilize.us handled voter registration information for the Democratic Party. During the 2024 Presidential election, teams working for Kamala Harris fixed flaws in the system, and some questioned whether a private equity firm should be handling such data.
In February 2022, Apax acquired a majority stake in Ole Smoky Distillery, a Gatlinburg, Tennessee–based spirits company.
In February 2022, Apax also acquired a controlling stake in Alcumus, a risk management and compliance services firm based in Cardiff. The deal valued Alcumus at over £600 million.
In June 2022, Apax acquired EcoOnline, an EHS and chemical management SaaS company for $401 million.
In October 2022, Apax sold ISO tank services provider Boasso Global, formerly known as Quality Distribution, to KKR.
In January 2023, Apax portfolio company EcoOnline merged with the software division of Alcumus.
In May 2023, Apax agreed to acquire Blackstone Inc.'s minority stake in IBS Software, a software-as-a-service provider for travel and logistics companies, investing an estimated $450m, with IBS Software founder and executive chairman, Valayil Korath Mathews, retaining the majority stake.
In July 2023, Apax agreed with Fremman Capital and other minor stakeholders, to acquire a co-controlling stake in Spain's Palex Medical.
In August 2023, Apax entered into an agreement with The Tornante Company, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner's private investment firm, and Madison Dearborn Partners to acquire the Bazooka candy business for a sum of $700 million.
In October 2023, Apax agreed to invest in GAN Integrity, a provider of cloud-based compliance management software, based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In November 2023, Apax, together with existing investors Frontier Growth, PeakSpan Capital, and Petvisor's management team, invested more than $100m in Petvisor, a veterinary and pet services software provider.
In December 2023, Apax acquired the financial software companies OCS from Charme Capital Partners and Finwave from Lutech.
In February 2024, Apax completed the acquisition of trend forecasting company WGSN from Ascential. In the same month, Apax acquired a majority stake in Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES), a Glasgow-based provider of software simulation tools and consulting services for the decarbonisation of buildings, communities and cities.
In May 2024, Apax agreed to sell India based Healthium Medtech, a medical device company acquired from TPG Growth, CX Partners, and founding shareholders in April 2018, to KKR for a sum of $839 million.
In July 2024, Genius Sports Limited announces that Funds advised by Apax Partners LLP have fully monetized their equity interest in Genius Sports and no longer holds any shares in the Company.
In Nov 2024, Apax completes the transaction to take the consultancy company Thoughtworks (NASDAQ: TWKS) private, for a sum of $1.75 Billion.
In December 2024, Apax and GTCR agreed to sell AssuredPartners NL to Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in a $13.45 billion cash deal.
From Wikipedia’s article on Apax Partners, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4