Q-News

November 2011

M&A News - October 2011

Posted in M&A News

There were five private M&A deals reported in October and the only all-Canadian deal took place in the financial sector.  The remaining four deals were all of the cross-border variety, including IBM acquiring a company that was founded in Atlantic Canada, two acquisitions by Canada’s big pension funds, and a UK company making its second Canadian acquisition of 2011.

Canadian M&A Transactions

Toronto’s Kensington Capital Partners acquired Manna Asset Management, a Toronto firm that offers investors a diversified portfolio of hedge funds by hand picking who they believe to be the top managers in the market. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Cross Border M&A

IBM acquired Q1 Labs, a provider of IT security management software for enterprises and government clients.  The company grew out of the R&D centre at the University of New Brunswick, although it has since moved its headquarters to Massachusetts.

OMERS Private equity acquired Great Expressions. Great Expressions is headquartered in Michigan and operates more than 152 dental offices in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia.  OMERS acquired the company in a secondary market transaction from Audax Group.

Just-eat.com, a UK-based company with operations in Canada, that allows customers to order food from a wide range of neighborhood restaurants, using the internet or smartphone devices, acquired Toronto’s Grub Canada, a similar company that works with over 200 companies in Ontario and British Columbia. Terms of the transaction has not been disclosed. Just-eat.com is backed by Silicon Valley’s Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures, as well as UK-based Index Ventures.  This is the company’s second acquisition in Canada this year – it acquired Vancouver-based YummyWeb back in April.

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan acquired a majority stake in Illinois-based Flexera Software, whose application usage management software help application providers and their clients deploy, monitor, and manage software licenses.  Teachers’ acquired its stake from Thoma Bravo, a PE shop that will maintain a minority interest in the business. 

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