(Bloomberg) -- Private equity firm Nordic Capital has entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire US-based patent software company Anaqua from Astorg Partners SAS.
The deal may close by the first quarter of next year, Nordic Capital said in a statement on Monday confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. Financial terms were not disclosed, though the deal could value the company at about $2.5 billion, people familiar with the matter have said.
Nordic Capital was interested in the deal because of the possible applications for Anaqua’s data and its potential to grow in Asia and Europe, Fredrik Näslund, partner and head of technology and payments at Nordic Capital, said. The Boston-based company’s applications scan the market for patents that might infringe on the rights of its customers, which include Nvidia Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. It has more than 800 employees with offices across the US, Europe and Asia.
“This is one exciting area because that data is extremely valuable and can be used to build out applications which are AI-driven,” Näslund said in an interview on Monday. “Language-based AI would have a very strong use case here.”
Nordic Capital has made 33 technology investments in companies with an aggregate enterprise value of roughly €26 billion ($27 billion), including ArisGlobal, Trustly and Zafin. Astorg acquired Anaqua from Insight Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners for an undisclosed amount in 2019.
“Anaqua has a stronghold in the North American market and it’s pretty strong in Europe and Asia,” Näslund said. “Our investment case is to build out a stronger Asian and European business through a localization, investing in the product and building out a go-to-market proposition.”
William Blair acted as financial adviser to Nordic Capital. Arma Partners and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. advised Astorg and Anaqua.
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