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Company type | Private |
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Industry | Private equity |
Founded | August 1999 in Menlo Park, California, U.S. |
Founders |
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Headquarters | |
Key people | |
AUM | US$45 billion (2024) [1] |
Number of employees | 116 (2023) |
Subsidiaries | The Weather Company, AdvancedMD, Merative, New Relic, RBMedia, Sumo Logic |
Website | franciscopartners |
Footnotes /references [2] : 9–10 |
Francisco Partners Management, L.P., doing business as Francisco Partners, is an American private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in technology and technology-enabled services businesses. [3] It was founded in August 1999 and based in San Francisco with offices in London and New York City. [4] [5]
In June 2022, Francisco Partners were ranked 20th in Private Equity International 's PEI 300 ranking of the largest private equity firms in the world. [6] [7]
In June 2024, Francisco Partners ranked 27th in Private Equity International's PEI 300 ranking among the world's largest private equity firms. [8]
Francisco Partners was founded in August 1999, [9] in Menlo Park, California, during the emergence of dedicated technology buyout firms. [10] Founders Sanford Robertson, Dipanjan Deb, David Stanton, Benjamin Ball, and Neil Garfinkel came from a variety of private equity firms. Robertson had been the founder of the technology-focused investment bank Robertson Stephens, while Deb left TPG Capital in August 1999, [11] in order to help found the firm. [10] Among its notable early investments, in 2000 the firm paid $375 million in cash to purchase 90% of AMD's communications products division. [12] Francisco Partners then raised $800 million in 2002 to purchase 90% of Global eXchange Services, a unit of the General Electric Company [13] [14] handling sales operations for about 30,000 multinational companies. [13]
The firm purchased NPTest in 2003, the semiconductor-testing unit of Schlumberger, [15] and by the following year Francisco Partners had more than 30 active portfolio companies. [16] Francisco Partners purchased Smart Modular from the Solectron Corporation in 2004, with Smart Modular going public two years later. [17] From 2005 until 2010 the firm owned the software company RedPrairie. [18] In 2006 the company led a leveraged buyout of Metrologic Instruments, which makes laser and holographic-based scanners, [19] and also purchased WatchGuard. [20] The firm purchased API Healthcare in 2008, [18] and by 2010 Francisco Partners' other healthcare holdings included AdvancedMD, Healthland, QuadraMed, and T-System. [21]
By 2012, the Francisco Partners' funds had about $7 billion in capital and invested "exclusively in technology companies across sectors including semiconductors, capital equipment and electronics components." [22] That year the company acquired the software company Ichor from American Industrial Partners, [23] as well as Plex Systems, [24] and Kewill. [25] The firm invested in Paymetric in 2013, [26] selling the company to Vantiv in Atlanta, Georgia four years later. [27] After acquiring the e-commerce services company Avangate in 2013, [28] in 2014 the firm invested in the software company Prosper, with Francisco Partners' executive David Golob becoming a Prosper director. [29] Also in 2014, Francisco Partners invested in the information technology company CoverMyMeds, [3] and paid $120 million for a majority stake, [30] [31] in the controversial spy company NSO Group, [32] [30] sold in 2019. [33] The firm completed raising about $2.9 billion for its fourth fund in 2015. [34] That year, the firm also purchased the California-based analytics company Procera Networks for $240 million and the Israeli workplace management company ClickSoftware Technologies for $438 million. [35] The firm invested in GoodRx in 2015 as well. [36]
Francisco joined with Elliott Management in June 2016 to buy the SonicWall, [20] as well as Quest Software, [37] subsidiaries from Dell as part of the spinoff of Dell Software. [20] [38] The SonicWall investment attracted some controversy in the press, as Francisco Partners had also invested in the competitor WatchGuard, going against norms in the private equity industry. [20] Also in 2016, the firm sold Aesynt to Omnicell for $275 million and took Ichor Holdings public with an initial public offering. [37] [39] In late 2016, Francisco Partners launched its Agility fund, raising approximately $600 million of committed capital to focus on smaller technology deals. [40] Shortly afterwards, Francisco Partners invested in Dynamo Software, [41] Pet Circle, [42] Discovery Education, [43] and myON, the latter of which was sold in 2018. [44] Additional investments in 2016 and 2017 included companies such as SmartBear Software, [45] iconectiv, and others. [46] [47] [48] [37]
In 2017, Francisco Partners sold CoverMyMeds to McKesson Corporation, [49] and Paymetric to Vantiv, [50] and also sold PayLease [51] and Corsair Gaming. [52] Francisco Partners bought, and subsequently sold, James Allen.com in 2017. [53] In June 2017, Francisco Partners also acquired Sandvine, a Canadian public company that was combined with Procera, [54] for $444 million. [55] Francisco Partners was named Private Equity Firm of the Year by Mergers & Acquisitions in 2017. [37] The firm's fifth fund, Francisco Partners V, was formed at the end of 2017 with approximately $4 billion of committed capital. [56] The year after Francisco Partners V's launch, the firm acquired Bomgar Corporation, [57] Renaissance Learning, [58] and LegalZoom. [59] In June 2018, Francisco Partners purchased VeriFone for $3.4 billion. [60] Also in 2018, Blackstone Inc.'s Strategic Capital Group and Goldman Sachs' Petershill program acquired a minority stake in Francisco Partners. [56]
On September 30, 2019, Francisco Partners announced its intent to acquire Orchard Software Corporation, a privately owned company specializing in medical laboratory software. [61]
In June 2020, Francisco Partners wrapped up fundraising for three funds: $7.45 billion for its VI LP fund, $1.5 billion for its Agility II fund and $750 million for Francisco Partners Credit. [62]
In August 2020, Francisco Partners joined Diligent Corporation's Modern Leadership Initiative and pledged to create five new board roles among its portfolio companies for gender or ethnically diverse candidates. [63] On August 31, 2020, the deal closed for Francisco Partners to buy LogMeIn, [64] most known for LastPass password manager, for $4.3 billion together with Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., [65] a private equity affiliate of Elliott Management. In September 2020, Francisco Partners investment GoodRx went public on the Nasdaq, with a market cap of about $19.4 billion. [66]
On October 26, 2020, Francisco Partners announced the acquisition of Forcepoint, a cybersecurity company formerly owned by Raytheon Technologies. [67] Shortly thereafter, the firm bought MyFitnessPal from Under Armour for $345 million. [68] The acquisition completed on December 1, 2020. [69]
On January 11, 2021, Francisco Partners completed acquisition of Forcepoint. [70] In March 2021, the firm entered into a partnership with Zenefits that gave them full control of the company. [71]
Also in early 2021, Francisco Partners acquired MyHeritage for a reported $600 million. [72] In May 2021, Francisco Partners and TPG Capital agreed to acquire cloud-based integration business Boomi from Dell for $4 billion. [73] In July 2021 Francisco Partners acquired STARLIMS from Abbott Informatics. [74] They also completed an acquisition for the EHR vendor OfficeAlly in December 2021. [75] [76] In October 2021, Francisco Partners raised $2.2 billion in its FP Credit Partners II fund. [77]
On January 21, 2022, Francisco Partners acquired health data assets from IBM's Watson Health unit. These assets included Health Insights, MarketScan, Clinical Development, Social Program Management, Micromedex, and imaging software offerings. [78] The assets were valued at a reported $1 billion. [79] In July 2022, raised $13.5 billion for its VII LP fund and $3.3 billion for its Francisco Partners Agility III LP fund. [80]
Also in 2022, Francisco Partners announced the acquisition of bswift from CVS Health. Bswift (stylilzed as "bswift") is a provider of software and services for benefits and human resources administration. [81]
In May 2023, Francisco Partners completed the acquisition of Sumo Logic for $1.7 billion. [82]
In July 2023, together with TPG Inc., Francisco Partners agreed to acquire web tracking and analytics firm New Relic in an all-cash deal valued at $6.5 billion. [83]
In August 2023, IBM agreed to sell The Weather Company to Francisco Partners for an undisclosed sum. [84] The sale was finalized on February 1, 2024, [85] and the cost was disclosed as $1.1 billion, with $750 million in cash, $100 million deferred over seven years, and $250 million in contingent consideration. [86]
In September 2023, American investment management firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts sold the audiobook publisher RBmedia to private equity firms H.I.G. Capital and Francisco Partners in a transaction valued at over $1 billion. [87] In December 2023, Francisco Partners completed its purchase of British data security provider Blancco Technology Group, in a deal worth £175 million. [88]
In February 2024, Francisco Partners and TA Associates signed an agreement to become co-controlling shareholders of Orisha, a European software company. [89] In March 2024, Francisco Partners announced the acquisition of Jama Software, an industry leading requirements management and traceability solution provider, for $1.2B. [90] In October 2024, Francisco Partners and Clearlake Capital completed their acquisitions of American software company Synopsys' Software Integrity Group (later renamed Black Duck Software), for $2.1 billion. [91] [92] That same month, Global Payments sold its medical software business, AdvancedMD, to Francisco Partners for $1.13 billion. [93]
In January 2025, Francisco Partners announced the final closing of FP Credit Partners III, L.P., an opportunistic credit fund worth $3.3 billion, which exceeded the target fund amount of $2.3 billion. [94] In February 2025, Francisco Partners earned the number one spot on the 2025 HEC Paris Dow Jones "Large Buyout" performance rankings. [95]
In March 2025, Francisco Partners acquired Quorum Software, a leading provider of energy software worldwide. With this investment, it hopes to further strengthen its platform and provide customers with world-class software and services. [96]
Francisco Partners specializes in financing divisional buyouts, taking public companies private, sponsored mergers and acquisitions, growth equity financing, recapitalizations, and restructurings. The firm primarily invests in maturing or mature [9] technology and technology-related companies [34] in areas such as software, internet, [35] healthcare, communications, hardware, and technology services. The firm typically acquires a majority or controlling stake in its portfolio companies, but will occasionally acquire a minority interest in a company with board representation. [9] Specializing in technology buyouts, Francisco has acquired former venture capital-backed companies, as well as many divisions of large conglomerates and IT companies worldwide. [16]
The firm is based in San Francisco, California, with additional offices including one in London, United Kingdom. [32] [9] Francisco Partners is currently led by CEO Dipanjan Deb, one of the firm's founders, [34] along with Ezra Perlman and Deep Shah, co-presidents, and David Golob, the chief investment officer. [11]
Francisco Partners has been top ranked by the HEC Paris Dow Jones Private Equity Performance Rankings from 2020 to 2024 and among tech specialist private equity firms, [97] [98] [99] and has a list of portfolio companies that changes frequently. Francisco Partners has invested in or acquired companies including GoodRx, [100] [101] BeyondTrust, [102] Renaissance Learning, [103] and MyHeritage. [104] [105] [106] [107] [108] [60]
In the past, Francisco Partners has held, among others, investments or ownership of ClickSoftware Technologies, [109] [35] Comodo Group, [110] and Connecture. [109] [47] [46] [111] [112] [113] [108] [54] [45]