Owner IFS buys ERP provider Acumatica

EQT Partners, owner of IFS, has attracted another ERP provider with Acumatica. As a result, the two companies ERP suppliers will work closely together. Acumatica is a cloud-native ERP vendor focused on SMEs.

EQT used the same $45 billion investment fund that it used to buy IFS in 2016, says CEO Darren Roos to Enterprise Times. Roos will be appointed to the board of directors of Acumatica, and Jonas Persson, industry advisor for EQT, will be a director of both companies. According to the agreement, both companies also have a stake in each other.

Complements each other

Roos states that Acumatica was initially bought as an idea for EQT. My team and I saw a great deal of synergy with Acumatica as a company. The two companies therefore have shared interests. Both are in the mid-market and especially in the field service for which IFS acquired Workwave in 2017.

According to Roos, the two companies complement each other nicely. This is mainly because all Acumatica’s business is focused on the SME segment. The vast majority of IFS focuses on enterprises, but Workwave does cause conflicts, admits Roos.

It is possible that Acumatica and Workwave will go hand in hand in the future. This will be looked at in the coming months.

Marriage

According to Roos, this is not a traditional acquisition. Although EQT buys Acumatica and Roos joins the board of directors, the two companies do not merge. I think marriage here is a good analogy.

The main reason the two companies don’t go together is because of the growth they are experiencing. Acumatica saw growth of 50 percent in a year, and IFS’ cloud license growth increased by 60 percent. Given that growth, we don’t want to jeopardize it. There will be an initial period in which we will look at the opportunities for faster growth.

However, the situation may change in the future and the companies will still merge. However, this is not in the short term, emphasises Roos.