Mergers & Acquisitions

Beacon Pointe Expanding Into PNW By Acquiring $775 Million Joslin Capital Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 14, 2024

Beacon Pointe Advisors announced a recent partnership with Joslin Capital Advisors. Based in Redmond, Washington, Joslin Capital is Beacon Pointe’s second RIA acquisition this year and brings about $775 million in client assets under advisement to Beacon Pointe.

Wealth Enhancement Group Adds $658 Million Gavin Financial Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 14, 2024

Wealth Enhancement Group, a national independent wealth management firm with $82.1+ billion in client assets, announced that it joined forces with Gavin Financial Group in Midland, Michigan. This team of five manages over $658 million in client assets and is led by Owner and Financial Advisor, Michael Gavin, CFP.

Raymond James Adds $500+ Million Alaska-Based Advisor Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 14, 2024

Michael O'Meara, Midwest regional director for the firm's employee advisor channel Raymond James & Associates (RJA) welcomed financial advisors Keith Green, CFP, CIMA, and Jon Coon, CPFATM, MBA, in Anchorage, Alaska.

LPL Financial Brings In $265 Million Generational Asset Planning And Cousino Teams

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 14, 2024

LPL Financial announced it added a couple of teams that both reported serving $265 million in advisory, brokerage and retirement plan assets each.

Cresset Acquires Connable Office To Enhance Services

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 13, 2024

Cresset Asset Management announced its acquisition of The Connable Office, one of the nation's oldest multi-family offices. Based out of Kalamazoo, Michigan and organized as a private trust company, Connable has been carried forward for over 130 years. With this acquisition, the combined firm will manage more than $52 billion in assets on behalf of high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.

Voodoo Buying BeReal For €500 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 13, 2024

France-based mobile and game publisher company Voodoo announced it has acquired BeReal for €500 million. In connection with the acquisition, BeReal co-founder and CEO Alexis Barreyat will leave the company following a transition period. And Wizz CEO Aymeric Roffé (a Voodoo social media app) will become BeReal’s CEO.

Yext To Buy Hearsay Systems For At Least $125 Million

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 12, 2024

Yext, a leading digital presence platform for multi-location brands, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Hearsay Systems, a global leader in digital client engagement for financial services, for $125 million and up to an additional $95 million if certain performance targets are achieved.

Marsh McLennan’s Mercer Buying Cardano

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 12, 2024

Mercer (a business of Marsh McLennan and a leader in reshaping retirement and investment outcomes and unlocking real health and well-being) announced that it reached an agreement to acquire Cardano. Launched in 2000, Cardano is a long-term savings specialist in the UK and the Netherlands, with about $66 billion in assets under management.

Formstack Buys Data Management Company Open Raven

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 12, 2024

Formstack, a leading form, document, and e-signature software provider, supporting over 32,000 customers worldwide, announced the acquisition of Open Raven, a leading data management and security company.

ZS Buying Digital Additive To Support Personalized Marketing Solutions

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 12, 2024

ZS, a global management consulting and technology firm, announced it has acquired Digital Additive, a leading Salesforce digital marketing agency that specializes in helping businesses leverage the Salesforce Marketing Cloud ecosystem to build data-driven and personalized marketing campaigns and deliver impactful results.

Tenable Buying Eureka To Bring Data Security Posture Management To Cloud Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 12, 2024

Exposure management company Tenable Holdings announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Eureka Security, a provider of data security posture management (DSPM) for cloud environments. And Eureka Security helps security teams gain a holistic view into an organization’s cloud data security footprint, fight policy drift and misconfigurations that put data at risk, and improve their security posture over time. The acquisition is expected to close this month.

Cognizant Buying Belcan For About $1.3 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 12, 2024

Cognizant announced it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Belcan, a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners and a leading global supplier of Engineering Research & Development (ER&D) services, at a purchase price of about $1.3 billion in cash and stock, subject to customary adjustments.

Robinhood Buying Bitstamp In $200 Million Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 12, 2024

Robinhood Markets entered into an agreement to buy Bitstamp, a global cryptocurrency exchange. Bitstamp was launched in 2011 and has offices in Luxembourg, the UK, Slovenia, Singapore, and the US.

Sirion Buying Eigen To Advance Document AI Technology

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 12, 2024

Sirion (see Pulse 2.0 profile here), a category leader in AI-native contract lifecycle management (CLM), announced the acquisition of Eigen Technologies, a market leader in Document AI for financial services and insurance that has pioneered data extraction and AI governance.

Piper Sandler Acquiring Aviditi Advisors

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 12, 2024

Leading investment bank Piper Sandler Companies announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Aviditi Advisors. Aviditi Advisors is an alternative investment bank offering full lifecycle services to financial sponsors and global alternative investment managers and limited partner investors with offices in New York City, Dallas, London and Munich.

Kestra Private Wealth Services Adds $500 Million Team In Ohio

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 12, 2024

Kestra Private Wealth Services (Kestra PWS), a registered investment adviser subsidiary of Kestra Financial, announced the addition of the financial professional team at Ohio-based Attain Wealth Partners to its platform. The firm’s personnel offer clients personalized solutions from wealth and investment management to retirement.

Blackford Capital Buys Industrial Automation Leader PACIV

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 11, 2024

Blackford Capital, a leading lower middle market private equity firm, announced the acquisition of PACIV - which specializes in industrial automation solutions. PACIV is a leading full-service provider of industrial process automation and systems integration primarily for manufacturers in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries.

Summit Financial Brings In $1.9 Billion Team From Merrill Lynch

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 11, 2024

Summit Financial Holdings, a leading architect of advisor success and client satisfaction for over four decades, expanded its national footprint with the launch of SRM Private Wealth. Based in Pasadena, California, this newly formed independent practice is led by managing partner and private wealth advisor Richard McWhorter, CFP, CRPC. This is the eleventh firm this year to join Summit Growth Partners (SGP).

Booz Allen Acquires PAR Government Systems

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 11, 2024

Booz Allen Hamilton announced that it has acquired PAR Government Systems Corporation (PGSC), a wholly owned subsidiary of PAR Technology Corporation. This acquisition will combine PGSC’s edge technologies with Booz Allen’s expertise and digital battlespace solutions to accelerate and transform warfighter technology on the front lines.

EV3 Global Buys Countable To Enhance Employee Engagement

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 11, 2024

Countable, a leading platform for digital community engagement, announced it has been acquired by EV3 Global, a technology innovator in employment intelligence and AI. This deal expands EV3 Global’s capabilities by integrating an employee engagement solution and adding experts in Employee Experience to its team, enhancing EV3 Global’s ability to address the trillion-dollar employee turnover problem.

Cloudera Acquiring Verta’s Operational AI Platform

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 10, 2024

Enterprise AI data company Cloudera announced it has deepened its AI expertise with its acquisition of Verta’s Operational AI Platform. And the Verta team will join Cloudera’s machine learning group, reporting to Chief Product Officer Dipto Chakravarty.

Stratos Wealth Advisors Adds $120 Million Pistone Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 10, 2024

Stratos Wealth Advisors (a part of Stratos Wealth Holdings) announced it has successfully recruited the multi-generational Pistone Wealth Advisors of Pepper Pike, Ohio. Pistone is led by President and CEO Karyn Pistone, who manages $120 million in client assets. The team also includes Senior Advisor Spencer Dieck, Practice Manager Linda Tekavec, and Advisor David Taucher.

Bain Capital Buying PowerSchool For $5.6 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 10, 2024

PowerSchool, a leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by Bain Capital in a transaction valuing the company at $5.6 billion.

Avantax Brings In $120 Million Financial Advisor Erin Hinzmann

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 10, 2024

Avantax, a leader in tax-focused financial planning and wealth management, announced it welcomed Erin Hinzmann - who joined Avantax Wealth Management via Alliance Wealth Strategies. Hinzmann was previously affiliated with Ameriprise Financial and had about $120 million in client assets under administration as of May 2024.

Society Brands To Buy Vitality Now

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 10, 2024

Society Brands, a consumer products company built for and by founders, partnered with the founders of Vitality Now for Society’s latest acquisition in the Direct-To-Consumer Health and Personal Care space, which will represent their fifth consecutive deal in this sector.

Wealth Enhancement Group Adds $1.22+ Billion The Financial Advisory Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 9, 2024

Wealth Enhancement Group, a national independent wealth management firm with over $81.5 billion in client assets, announced that it will join forces with The Financial Advisory Group, LLC, an independent RIA in Houston, Texas. The team of seven financial advisors and 14 support team members manages over $1.22 billion in client assets and is led by founder, Richard J. Alphonso, J.D., CPA/PFS, M.S.T., AEP.

KKR Buying Majority Ownership In Agiloft

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 7, 2024

Leading global investment firm KKR announced that a fund managed by KKR has entered into an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Agiloft, a trusted global leader in data-first contract lifecycle management (CLM). As part of the deal, FTV Capital (a sector-focused growth equity firm and an existing investor in Agiloft) will make an additional investment in the company and JMI Equity (a growth equity firm focused on investing in leading software companies) will join as a new investor in the company.

Cloudflare Buys Zero Trust Infrastructure Access Platform BastionZero

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 7, 2024

Leading connectivity cloud company Cloudflare has announced the acquisition of BastionZero, a Zero Trust infrastructure access platform. This deal further strengthen remote access to core IT systems for customers of Cloudflare One, which is the company’s secure access service edge (SASE) platform.

Deloitte Acquires End Point’s Disease Surveillance Assets CasePointer

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 6, 2024

Deloitte announced it had acquired substantially all of the assets of End Point's industry-leading disease surveillance business, CasePointer. This acquisition brings additional experienced and skilled software engineers, cloud developers, DevOps engineers, epidemiologists, and former public health officials to Deloitte.

Intel: 49% Of Irish Venture Selling To Apollo For $11 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● Jun 5, 2024

Intel and Apollo announced a definitive agreement under which Apollo-managed funds and affiliates will lead an investment of $11 billion to acquire a 49% equity interest in a joint venture entity related to Intel’s Fab 34 from Intel.