Mergers & Acquisitions

Avantax Onboards $143 Million FA Andrew Erickson

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 5, 2024

Avantax - a unique community within Cetera Holdings and a leader in tax-focused financial planning and wealth management - announced it welcomed independent financial advisor Andrew Erickson, CFP CEPA, founder of ClearGuide Wealth. Based in the Chicagoland area, Erickson transferred to Avantax after eight years with Edward Jones, where he had approximately $143 million in client assets under administration as of July 30, 2024.

SolomonEdwards Buying Tax Advisory Provider Steele Consulting

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

SolomonEdwards—a national professional services firm offering financial, operational, and technology consulting along with operations support—announced the acquisition of Steele Consulting, a national tax consulting firm. Effective immediately, SolomonEdwards clients have access to an expanded suite of tax support services across state, local, federal, and international jurisdictions.

OMERS Private Equity To Buy Integris

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

OMERS Private Equity announced it signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in Integris from Frontenac, a Chicago-based private equity firm. The financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

TreeHouse Foods: $205 Million Acquisition Of Harris Tea

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

TreeHouse Foods announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain subsidiaries that operate the private brand tea business of Harris Freeman & Co, a leading private brand tea manufacturer in the U.S., for about $205 million, subject to customary purchase price adjustments.

Continental Selling Smart Fleet Company Zonar To GPS Trackit

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

Continental announced the sale of Zonar, a leading smart fleet management provider, to GPS Trackit, an industry pioneer in cloud-based, IoT fleet solutions and GPS tracking. Details of the transaction, including financial terms, are not being disclosed.

Accenture To Buy Auto-Focused Embedded Software Company AOX

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

Accenture has agreed to acquire AOX, a German company specializing in embedded software for carmakers and their suppliers. This acquisition will enhance Accenture's capabilities to help automotive clients solve challenges they are facing in their transition to software-defined vehicles.

SmartBear Buying Digital Quality Platform Company QMetry

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

SmartBear - a leading provider of software quality and visibility solutions - announced its acquisition of QMetry, provider of a comprehensive AI-enabled digital quality platform designed to scale software quality that is trusted by enterprises globally, such as leading Fortune 500 companies. And this strategic acquisition will further enable agility for DevOps teams to speed up feature delivery, shorten time-to-market, and consistently deliver high-quality software.

Capitolis Buying BGC’s Compression & Optimization Business Capitalab In $46 Million Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

Capitolis, a company helping to create safer and more vibrant capital markets, has announced the acquisition of Capitalab, a leader in Rates Portfolio Compression and Margin Optimization, from BGC Group for a purchase amount of $46 million. This deal will enable Capitolis, a market leader in the optimization and compression space, to offer more solutions to the industry and unlock additional innovation to address emerging client needs.

EdgeCo Holdings Surpasses $600 Billion In Assets

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

EdgeCo Holdings announced it achieved a new record by surpassing $600 billion in assets serviced across its custody, trading, administration, brokerage, investment management, and technology platforms. And its AmericanTCS business unit, which offers retirement plan services to intermediary professionals, now services more than $550 billion in assets. EdgeCo’s wealth management arm NewEdge Capital Group represents over $60 billion in assets serviced.

Kestra PWS Onboards $427 Million Arc Private Wealth Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

Kestra Private Wealth Services (Kestra PWS), a registered investment adviser subsidiary of Kestra Financial announced the addition of Arc Private Wealth to its platform. And the firm offers customized solutions, including wealth management, retirement planning, and more, to its client base.

LPL Brings In $250 Million Advisor James Norris

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

LPL Financial announced that financial advisor James P. Norris, MBA, APMA, of Argosy Financial, has joined its broker-dealer, RIA, and custodial platforms. He reported serving approximately $250 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets and joins LPL from Centaurus Financial.

Mercer Advisors Brings In $110 Million All-Woman Advisory Team Frango Financial

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

Mercer Global Advisors, a national Registered Investment Adviser (RIA), announced the acquisition of Frango Financial. Frango is an RIA that delivers comprehensive financial planning services to working professionals primarily in Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina. Managing about $110 million in client assets, Frango is dedicated to guiding individuals and families to make informed financial decisions.

Miracle Mile Advisors Signs Strategic Partnership With Offit, Bringing AUM To $7.4 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

Miracle Mile Advisors - an registered investment advisor (RIA) offering highly customized wealth management services to high-net-worth clients, announced a strategic partnership with Offit Advisors in Maryland, which expands Miracle Mile’s East Coast presence and brings its assets under management (AUM) to $7.4 billion as December 1.

Crescent Energy Buying Eagle Ford Assets For $905 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 4, 2024

Crescent Energy Company announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire Eagle Ford assets from Ridgemar Energy for an upfront consideration of $905 million plus future oil price contingent consideration, subject to customary purchase price adjustments.

BlackRock To Buy HPS Investment Partners In $12 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 3, 2024

BlackRock and HPS Investment Partners (a leading global credit investment manager with about $148 billion in client assets) have entered into a definitive agreement for BlackRock to buy HPS for about $12 billion, with 100% of consideration paid in BlackRock equity. The equity is issued by a wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock and exchangeable on a one-for-one basis into BlackRock common stock.

Aon To Buy In-House Insurance Agency Of Mitsubishi Chemical Group

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 2, 2024

Aon plc - a leading global professional services firm - announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire the in-house insurance agency business of Mitsubishi Chemical Group (MCG) enhancing Aon’s risk and health capability offering in Japan.

Northern Star To Buy De Grey Mining In A$5 Billion Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 2, 2024

Northern Star Resources and De Grey Mining announced that they have entered into a binding Scheme Implementation Deed (SID) under which Northern Star proposes to acquire 100% of De Grey. Upon implementation of the deal, Northern Star will buy De Grey and its flagship project, Hemi, a low-cost, long-life, and large-scale gold development project in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

NTT DATA To Buy Niveus Solutions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 2, 2024

NTT DATA - a leader in digital business and IT services - announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Niveus Solutions, a premier cloud engineering company specializing in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) services.

Fortress Buys HDPE Company Infra Pipe Solutions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 2, 2024

Fortress Investment Group announced that funds managed by its affiliates have acquired Infra Pipe Solutions, a leading manufacturer of small—to large-diameter high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes and structures sold under brand names including Sclairpipe, Weholite, Endopure, and Enduct. The funds managed by Fortress affiliates have acquired a majority of IPS’s equity; the company’s management team has retained a minority stake.

Haveli Investments Buys Controlling Interest In Machine Identity Leader AppViewX

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 2, 2024

AppViewX - a leader in automated certificate lifecycle management (CLM) and public key infrastructure (PKI) solutions - announced a strategic majority investment from Haveli Investments, an Austin-based technology-focused private equity firm with expertise in enterprise software. And the funding, combined with Haveli Investment’s operating expertise, is expected to enable AppViewX further to expand market leadership with its AVX ONE platform and accelerate growth in a rapidly growing market with strong tailwinds generated by the increasing number of machine and non-human identities, shortening transport layer security (TLS) certificate durations, and evolving IT environments.

Raymond James Onboards $514 Million Sebring, Florida-Based Advisor Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 1, 2024

Gregg Stupinski, the South Atlantic regional director of Raymond James & Associates (RJA), announced it has welcomed financial advisors Dale Grubb, Matthew Grubb, CFP, and Corbin Hoffner to RJA. This team arrives from Morgan Stanley where they managed over $514 million in assets, and they are joined by practice business manager Joella Libero and senior client service associate Leighann Hylan.

Mediaocean To Buy Innovid In $500 Million Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 1, 2024

Mediaocean (a foundational partner for omnichannel advertising) and Innovid (an independent software platform for the creation, delivery, measurement, and optimization of advertising) announced they have entered into a definitive agreement in which Mediaocean will acquire Innovid. And as part of the deal, Innovid will merge with Flashtalking to create a premier global, independent, omnichannel ad tech platform.

Fifth Third Wealth Reveals $1.8 Billion North Carolina-Based Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 1, 2024

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors, a multi-custodial registered investment advisory firm, revealed its newest team and office in Winton-Salem, North Carolina.

Fortress Buying Gypsum Manufacturing Company Gyptech

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 1, 2024

Fortress Investment Group announced that funds managed by its affiliates have acquired Gyptech, a global leader in the design, construction, and commissioning of gypsum wallboard and asphalt-shingle manufacturing equipment and services.

Savant Wealth Management Buying $239 Million RIA Firm Sortino Advisory Partners

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 1, 2024

Savant Wealth Management, a fee-only registered investment adviser RIA, announced the acquisition of veteran-owned Sortino Advisory Partners, a Louisville, Kentucky-based fee-only RIA with $239 million in assets under management and $135.7 million in assets under advisement. Savant did not disclose terms of the deal, which closed on September 30.

WellRX Acquiring Bloodwork And Genetics Company Bioreach

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 1, 2024

WellRX, the parent company of preventative healthcare brands ReviveRX and Ways2Well, announced it acquired Bioreach, a bloodwork and genetics laboratory company. This deal brings advanced blood testing capabilities in-house, streamlining diagnostics and enabling the delivery of innovative health tests across WellRX’s ecosystem, such as partner telehealth clinics, weight-loss programs, testosterone therapies, and regenerative medicine services.

Peak Technology Buying 3D Printer Company Type A Machines

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 1, 2024

Peak Technology, a provider of rapid prototyping and advanced manufacturing solutions to the semiconductor, biomedical, aerospace, and other deep tech industries, announced it has approved a definitive agreement to acquire all the IP and assets of former 3D printer technology company Type A Machines.

MAG Wealth Management Buys Ovation To Oversee $350 Million In AUM

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 1, 2024

MAG Wealth Management announced the acquisition of Ovation Wealth Advisors and its subsequent rebranding to Carson Wealth. This strategic partnership, which includes Carson Group taking a 30% equity stake, exemplifies a new model for industry advisor growth and succession planning. The newly formed Carson Wealth location will oversee $350 million in assets under management (AUM) and be the first Carson Wealth branded location in Minnesota.

Heidelberg Materials To Buy Giant Cement In $600 Million Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 1, 2024

Heidelberg Materials North America announced that it has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Giant Cement Holding Inc. (GCHI) and its subsidiaries, Giant Cement Company, Dragon Products Company and Giant Resource Recovery, from the Fortaleza, Uniland and Trituradora groups.

Summit Financial: $420 Million Asset Acquisition Of Three Leading Advisory Firms

By Amit Chowdhry ● Dec 1, 2024

Summit Financial, an investment advisory firm with over 40 years of experience providing market-leading, multi-family office services that enable financial advisors to accelerate growth, announced that advisors from three firms - Southeast Financial Group (SEFG), Radiance Private Wealth, and Silvertree Retirement Planning - have joined its network. Summit’s partnership model Summit Growth Partners (SGP) has strategically invested in SEFG, Radiance, and Silvertree, elevating its total strategic investments to 16 for the year.