- Vista Equity Partners recently announced that it is acquiring San Diego-based Black Mountain Systems LLC from Stone Point
Investment firm Vista Equity Partners recently announced that it is acquiring San Diego-based Black Mountain Systems LLC — which is a leading provider of innovative workflow solutions to credit investors and alternative asset managers. Vista’s investment in Black Mountain is going to drive the continued growth of the software company domestically and internationally while also providing new capital to invest in the development of Black Mountain’s platform and tailored solutions for data aggregation, process management, and business reporting.
“We’re thrilled to become a part of the Vista family and look forward to the myriad of ways that their investment will help us grow our company, better serve our customers, and expand our team,” said Black Mountain founder and co-CEO Kevin MacDonald in a statement. “We look forward to working with them as we enter this next chapter.”
Black Mountain’s software and data aggregation capabilities essentially provide mission-critical solutions and valuable insights to a customer base that includes 50 out of the top 100 Collateralized Loan Obligation managers, leading private debt funds, commercial banks, and alternative asset managers — which represents more than $2 trillion in total assets under management.
And Black Mountain provides highly configurable solutions such as portfolio management, trade order management, compliance, research management, investment accounting, performance attribution, customer relationship management, investor reporting, enterprise data management, and data warehousing. The clients consist of many of the leading investment managers, credit funds, hedge funds, private equity, direct lenders, and banks in the world.
“This investment is a significant milestone for our company, our employees, and our customers,” added Black Mountain co-CEO Andy Horwitz. “We’ve already established ourselves as the market leader in workflow software for credit, structured credit, and alternative asset managers and now we have a partner in Vista who will help us leverage and build upon that leadership position with financial and intellectual capital to accelerate our growth.”
Black Mountain’s current investor Stone Point Capital LLC had acquired the company in 2015. And Stone Point will exit its partnership with Black Mountain upon its sale to Vista. This deal is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
“Black Mountain has long been the standard-bearer for process management and portfolio monitoring solutions in its field,” explained Vista Equity Partners chairman and CEO Robert F. Smith. “We’re looking forward to working with this talented and innovative company to push it even further ahead of the competition, unlocking new value for both customers and stakeholders.”
Vista Equity Partners is known for building up massive value in companies. For example, Vista is known for taking Marketo private for $1.8 billion and selling it to Adobe for $4.75 billion two years later. And Smith — who is the richest black man in America — raised the bar for commencement speeches when he announced that he is paying off the student loans for 396 Morehouse College graduates.
“We thank Andy Horwitz, Kevin MacDonald and the Black Mountain team for an outstanding partnership,” Stone Point CEO Chuck Davis commented. “Black Mountain has achieved significant growth in revenue and profitability since our investment in 2015, and we wish the company much-continued success under Vista’s ownership.”
Jefferies LLC served as the exclusive financial advisor to Black Mountain. Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP was the company’s legal advisor.
And SunTrust Robinson Humphrey served as financial advisor to Vista and Kirkland & Ellis worked as Vista’s legal advisor.
