Mergers & Acquisitions

Principal Buying ESOP Business From Ascensus

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 20, 2024

Principal Financial Group announced a definitive agreement with Ascensus to acquire its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) business. At the deal's closing, Principal will add about 800 plans and over 165,000 participants to its workplace savings and retirement solutions business, which ranks as the number one ESOP service provider in the U.S.

Battery Ventures: C$150 Million Acquisition Of TrueContext Completed

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 20, 2024

Battery Ventures announced it has closed its take-private acquisition of field-service workflow company TrueContext (formerly known as ProntoForms). The Canadian software company was delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange yesterday after Battery acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares for C$1.07 per share, valuing TrueContext at approximately C$150 million.

Iberdrola Buying The Rest Of Avangrid For $2.6 Billion

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 20, 2024

Avangrid, a leading sustainable energy company and member of the group of companies controlled by Iberdrola, S.A., announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement under which Iberdrola will acquire the remaining 18.4% of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock of Avangrid that it does not currently own for $35.75 per share in an all-cash transaction.

Avantax Acquiring $400 Million Wealth Management Firm GA Investment Management

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 20, 2024

Avantax, a tax-focused financial planning and wealth management leader, announced it has acquired GA Investment Management (GA). This Pennsylvania-based wealth management firm was not previously affiliated with Avantax. Since closing the acquisition, $400 million in GA client assets have been onboarded to the Avantax platform, and 10 GA employees are now W-2 employees of Avantax.

Concurrent Brings In $500 Million Advisory Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 20, 2024

Multi-custodial hybrid RIA Concurrent Investment Advisors announced it welcomed The Wealth Stewards to its growing network of aligned independent financial advisory firms. Jeff Breese and Brent Mekosh, managing partners of The Wealth Stewards, have merged their two Arizona-based practices to move to the Concurrent platform. And they chose Concurrent to provide operational support and growth capital as their team of nine professionals enters the RIA space.

Raymond James: $900 Million Advisor Team Brought Into Florida

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 20, 2024

Raymond James’ Florida regional director for the firm's employee advisor channel Raymond James & Associates (RJA), Tim Killgoar, announced that they have welcomed the team of four financial advisors and three branch professionals at Lelekis, Ellis, Kilczewski Private Wealth Management Group of Raymond James to RJA in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Fortress Management And Mubadala Complete Fortress Investment Acquisition

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 19, 2024

Fortress Investment Group and Mubadala Investment Company—through its wholly-owned asset management subsidiary Mubadala Capital—announced that they had completed the previously announced acquisition of SoftBank Group's 90.01% equity in Fortress. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Johnson & Johnson Buying Proteologix For $850 Million In Cash

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2024

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Proteologix, a privately-held biotechnology company focused on bispecific antibodies for immune-mediated diseases, for $850 million in cash, with the potential for an additional milestone payment.

Permira Taking Squarespace Private In $6.9 Billion All-Cash Deal

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2024

Squarespace, a design-driven platform helping entrepreneurs build brands and businesses online, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to go private by global private equity firm Permira in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $6.9 billion.

DayMark Wealth Partners Brings In $585 Million Hofstetter Baron Group

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2024

Ohio-based DayMark Wealth Partners announced that veteran financial advisors Thomas Hofstetter and Daniel Baron have joined the firm as the Hofstetter Baron Group of DayMark Wealth Partners. Previously a Wells Fargo Advisors team managing $585 million, Southport, Connecticut-based Hofstetter Baron Group advises high net worth families and individuals.

Wealthspire Advisors Acquiring $420 Million Walden Wealth Partners Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 18, 2024

Wealthspire Advisors (an NFP company and independent registered investment advisor firm headquartered in NYC) announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire Walden Wealth Partners (a registered investment advisor firm located in Beachwood, Ohio). And its founders, Karin Maloney Stifler and Sarah Hannibal, each bring decades of experience serving multigenerational clients.

Accenture Investing In Human Biology Predictive Simulation Company Turbine

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 17, 2024

Accenture announced it has made a strategic investment through Accenture Ventures in Turbine, a predictive simulation company building a platform for interpreting human biology. Accenture’s investment will help Turbine extend its platform to global biopharma companies that can benefit from Turbine’s ability to uncover hidden biological insights, which have the potential to guide and accelerate key drug development workstreams.

LPL Brings In $385 Million Advisory Team

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 15, 2024

LPL Financial announced that financial advisor Chris Kitaeff, CPFA, MBA, has joined LPL Financial’s broker-dealer, RIA, and custodial platforms. With this move to LPL, Kitaeff joins Maher Wealth Management as a managing director. He reported serving about $385 million in advisory, brokerage, and retirement plan assets and joined LPL from Merrill Lynch.

Oshkosh To Buy AUSA

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 13, 2024

Oshkosh, a leading provider of purpose-built vehicles and equipment, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire AUSACORP S.L. (AUSA), which is a privately held international company and manufacturer of wheeled dumpers, rough terrain forklifts and telehandlers for the construction, material handling, agriculture, landscape, and specialty equipment industries. Following the deal’s closing, AUSA will become part of the Oshkosh Access segment.

TPG Rise Climate To Buy Olympus Terminals

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 13, 2024

TPG Rise Climate (a dedicated climate investing strategy of TPG’s global impact investing platform TPG Rise) has signed a deal to buy Olympus Terminals. Olympus Terminals is a leading independent storage provider for renewable fuels and refined products in Southern California. It is majority owned by an affiliated investment fund of Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP and an affiliated investment fund of Intrepid Investment Management.

Special Aerospace Services Buying Space Engineering Company Quintron Systems

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 10, 2024

Godspeed Capital Management LP, a lower middle-market defense and government services, solutions, and technology-focused private equity firm, announced the acquisition of Quintron Systems by SAS, its recently launched space engineering, defense, and communications technology solutions platform.

Reveal Buying AI-Based E-Discovery And Investigations Company Onna

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 10, 2024

Reveal, a global provider of the leading AI-powered eDiscovery, review, and investigations platform, has announced the acquisition of Onna Technologies, a leading provider in helping companies manage unstructured data from cloud-based collaboration tools. Reveal is enhancing the left side of the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) and its end-to-end e-discovery platform through this strategic acquisition of the clear industry leader in data collection, analysis, and action. From the collection to the courtroom, Reveal offers the most comprehensive spectrum of AI-powered software solutions in the legal industry and beyond.

Rippl Buys AI Healthcare Company Kinto

By Amit Chowdhry ● May 9, 2024

Rippl, a leading dementia-focused specialty care provider, announced it had acquired Kinto - a Boston-based AI-enabled dementia caregiver support platform. This combination will enable the companies to reach an exponentially larger group of people living with dementia and their caregivers with human-centered care far beyond traditional brick-and-mortar models.