Francisco Partners is a private equity

Private equity

Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....

 firm focusing on structured investments in the information technology sector.

Francisco Partners Management LLC was founded in August 1999 and is headquartered in San Francisco and maintains an additional office in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Since inception, the firm has raised approximately $7.0 billion in committed capital across three funds and has built an investment portfolio including over 40 companies. Francisco Partners specializes in financing divisional spinouts, divisional buyouts including divestiture, acquisitions and "take privates" of public companies, sponsored mergers and acquisitions, acquisitions of private and public companies, strategic minority investments in public and private companies, fallen angels, management buyouts, growth equity financing, recapitalizations, and restructurings. In growth equity financing, the firm seeks to invest in industry roll-ups, joint ventures, and adjacent market opportunities that may evolve from situations such as post-venture capital funding needs, sponsor changes, or assets hidden within larger companies. It prefers to invest in mature or maturing technology and technology-related companies. The firm seeks to invest in communications, hardware, information technology services and software, healthcare technology, outsourcing and transaction processing services, semiconductors and capital equipment, electronic product distributors, electronics components, systems, and manufacturing, business process outsourcing (BPO), security and enterprise application and infrastructure software, and communications service providers. It prefers to invest in companies with enterprise values ranging from $25 million to $2 billion. The firm makes equity investments ranging from less than $25 million to over $500 million. It typically acquires a majority or controlling stake in its portfolio companies. The firm generally acquires a seat on the Board of Directors in the portfolio companies.

History

Francisco was founded in 1999 at the height of the dot-com bubble

Dot-com bubble

The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1995–2000 during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth in the more...

 as interest in technology investments accelerated. The founders of the firm came from a group of west coast private equity firms including TPG Capital, together with the founder of technology-focused investment bank Robertson Stephens

Robertson Stephens

Robertson Stephens was a San Francisco-based boutique investment bank that focused on primarily on technology companies...

.

Investments

Francisco Partners has more than 20 active portfolio companies. Francisco has acquired former venture capital

Venture capital

Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...

-backed companies as well as many divisions of large conglomerates and IT companies worldwide.

Francisco Partners have invested in or purchased companies such as Aconex

Aconex

Aconex is a privately held Australian company providing web-based electronic construction collaboration technologies , on a Software as a service basis, to customers in the engineering, natural resources, construction and property sectors...

, ADERANT, AdvancedMD Software, AKQA

AKQA

AKQA is a creative agency specializing in interactive marketing. The privately held company has offices in London, San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C, Amsterdam, Berlin, Shanghai and San Salvador, totally roughly 1,000 full-time employees.-Philosophy:...

, AMI Semiconductor

AMI Semiconductor

AMI Semiconductor is a company engaged the design and manufacture of customer specific integrated circuit solutions, including solutions for the automotive, medical and industrial markets. Among its products are products that integrate processing of analog and digital signals...

, API Healthcare, Attachmate

Attachmate

Attachmate Corporation is a software company owned by an investment group led by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital, and Thoma Cressey Bravo. Attachmate focuses on terminal emulation, legacy modernization, managed file transfer, and enterprise fraud management software. Attachmate Corporation...

, Attenti, Barracuda Networks

Barracuda Networks

Barracuda Networks, Inc. is a privately held company providing security, networking and storage solutions based on appliances and cloud services. The company’s security products include solutions for protection against email, web surfing, web hackers and instant messaging threats such as spam,...

, Blue Coat, C-MAC MicroTechnology, Cybit, Dextrys, NexTraq

NexTraq

NexTraq is a fleet tracking company based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Acquired by Francisco Partners in 2009, NexTraq is a provider of Global Positioning System vehicle management and fleet tracking solutions...

, EFJohnson Technologies, Emailvision, Ex Libris Group, Foundation 9 Entertainment

Foundation 9 Entertainment

Foundation 9 Entertainment is an entertainment media conglomerate that has developed video games, comic books, film and television series. The company is one of the largest independent game developers in the world, and has more than 450 employees working in its various studios in California,...

, FrontRange Solutions

FrontRange Solutions

FrontRange Solutions Inc. is a midrange developer of CRM, Communication management and IT Service Management software with worldwide headquarters in Pleasanton, CA.-History:...

, FX Solutions, City Index, Grass Valley

Grass Valley

-Places:United States* Grass Valley, California, a city in Nevada County** Roman Catholic Diocese of Grass Valley, a former diocese based in the California city* Little Grass Valley, California, a former town in Plumas County...

, GXS, Healthland, Hypercom

Hypercom

Hypercom was a founding member of the Secure POS Vendor Alliance, a non-profit organization created by Hypercom, Ingenico and VeriFone, to increase awareness of and improve payment industry security. Hypercom was founded in Australia in 1978....

, Legerity, LYNX Medical Systems, MetaSwitch Networks, Metrologic Instruments

Metrologic Instruments

Metrologic Instruments is an automated identification and data capture company headquartered in Blackwood, New Jersey.Metrologic Instruments designs, manufactures and markets bar code decoding hardware, adaptive optical solutions and high-speed image processing software.Metrologic Instruments is a...

, Mitel Networks, NPTest, Numonyx

Numonyx

Numonyx is a semiconductor company making flash memories, which was founded on March 31, 2008 by Intel Corporation, STMicroelectronics and Francisco Partners. It was acquired by Micron Technology on February 9, 2010....

, OfficeTiger, Primavera

Primavera Systems

Primavera Systems, Inc was founded in May 1983 by Joel Koppelman and Dick Faris. It was a private company based in Pennsylvania which developed software solutions for the Project Portfolio Management market...

, Quadramed, Quantros

Quantros

Quantros is a privately owned health care software company based in Milpitas, California.-Concept:Quantros focuses on four primary health care markets: Quality, patient safety, infection control and accreditation standards compliance...

, RedPrairie

RedPrairie

RedPrairie is a privately-held supply chain, workforce and all-channel commerce software provider headquartered in Alpharetta, GA. The company's solutions help ensure visibility and collaboration between manufacturers, distributors, retailers and consumers at over 60,000 customer sites in more than...

, SMART Modular Technologies, Source Photonics, Specific Media, T-System, Ultra Clean Technology, WatchGuard

WatchGuard

WatchGuard Technologies, a pioneer in network security appliances, is a provider of Internet security solutions for small to mid-sized businesses worldwide.-History:...

, Webtrends

WebTrends

Webtrends is a private company headquartered in Portland, Oregon, United States. It provides web analytics and other software solutions related to marketing intelligence...

 and XcelleNet.

External links

• Francisco Partners (company website)