European TMT focused private equity group GMT Communications Partners has acquired MeetingZone, a conferencing and collaboration service provider, for a total consideration of £38.5m.
With this acquisition, MeetingZone is expected to get GMT’s support to expand in existing markets both through increasing customer numbers and revenue per customer, as well as extend into new markets in Europe and Asia-Pacific, and to expand the service offering.
The investment strategy of GMT will be supported by the highly scalable technology platform from MeetingZone.
GMT acquired the business from the two founders, Tim Duffy and Steve Gandy, who will sell some of their interests in the business, but remain significant shareholders – Steve and Tim will hold the positions of CEO and non-executive chairman, respectively.
The company will also buy Nova Capital Management’s share in MeetingZone. Nova, a manager of direct secondary private equity portfolios, has been invested in the business since 2006.
GMT partner Stefan Franssen said with the UK and European conferencing markets forecast to grow at around 10% a year to the end of 2013 – driven by the desire of corporates to cut travel and time costs, reduce carbon emissions and cater for increasing numbers of home or remote workers – MeetingZone is ideally positioned to capitalise on its market-leading technology.
MeetingZone Chairman Tim Duffy said GMT’s access to international networks, expertise and support in the coming years will allow them to continue to develop their market-leading technology platform and focus on their commitment to service excellence.
KPMG and DLA Piper advised Nova and MeetingZone management on the deal, while Weil, Gotshal & Manges provided legal advice to GMT. The National Australia Bank Group member Clydesdale Bank acted as the provider of bank financing.
MeetingZone has operations in the UK, North America and Germany, and is expected to grow turnover by more than 20% in the current financial year ending March 2012, in line with revenue CAGR of 20% recorded over the last three financial years.
The company offers a range of solutions, from fully automated, self-managed reservationless conference calls to high-profile managed event calls for shareholder communications, and uses "e-business self-service" principles to fully automate its operations.
