Private equity group ABRY Partners has acquired a majority interest in M2M wireless network provider Kore Wireless Group for an undisclosed amount.
Kore stated that the investment will provide it with acquisition capital to consolidate its position as…
Private equity group ABRY Partners has acquired a majority interest in M2M wireless network provider Kore Wireless Group for an undisclosed amount.
Kore stated that the investment will provide it with acquisition capital to consolidate its position as the largest provider of broad-based M2M service solutions.
To that end, Kore is to acquire RacoWireless in an all-cash transaction. RacoWireless provides end-to-end connectivity solutions to the machine-to-machine market.
The acquisition is subject to the completion of certain regulatory and other consents, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Commenting on both ABRY’s investment and the RacoWireless purchase, Alex Brisbourne, CEO of Kore, said: “We are standing at a historic inflection point in our industry where scalability and innovation are critical, and the financial partnership with ABRY delivers the capital and expert support necessary to rapidly develop the scale demanded by global customers in what has so far been a fragmented market.
“Strategic acquisitions both in advanced connectivity and richer applications solutions are an important goal, as scale and global reach are of paramount importance to our large applications and enterprise customers.”
Brisbourne also intimated that this deal was just the start of its acquisition strategy.
For ABRY, Kore fits its investment criteria of a technology company operating in a market with high barriers to entry, where bolt-on acquisitions can provide the scale necessary to significantly bolster profitability.
A similar pattern emerged when it purchased a majority stake in satellite connectivity provider Emerging Markets Communications in late 2012. The sponsor subsequently funded EMC’s acquisition of VSAT hardware manufacturer STM.
ABRY also previously owned satcoms specialist CapRock which it sold to Harris for US$525m in 2010, well over twice what it had paid for the company back in 2006.