Recent Philly M&A: LLR Partners, SICOM, eLocal, Tabula Rasa, CrossBeam

Tom Paine


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One substantial Philadelphia area exit I missed earlier in the year (September) was the acquisition of Lansdale-based SICOM Systems by Atlanta-based Global Payments for $415 million.

Founded in 1987, SICOM makes software that helps run quick service restaurants. Burger King and many of its franchisees are major users, though that arrangement is not exclusive for either party. SICOM has approximately 300 employees according to LinkedIn, half of whom are out of Lansdale. It made a couple of acquisitions while under LLR, including one as recently as last June.

LLR Partners had acquired SICOM in 2016. No word on what LLR paid for it, although its website says $250 million is tops for any one investment.

(Correction: though I got that $250 million figure from somewhere on the LLR website, LLR tells me: "The accurate figure is that we invest between $15 million and $100 million of growth capital in companies with up to $100 million in annual revenue". Which I took to mean LLR's acquisition price for SICOM probably didn't exceed $100 million or thereabouts. Pretty good turnover for two years.) Although that's simplistic; LLR probably put
more money in, such as for SICOM's acquisitions.


The acquirer, Global Payments (NYSE: GPN), is one of the leading payment processors in the world. Global Payments acquired Heartland Payment Systems, another former LLR portfolio company, for $4.3 Billion in 2016. There's a pattern here.

Heartland, which was formerly headquartered in Princeton, now calls Oklahoma City HQ.



In more recent news, LLR portfolio company eLocal (Conshohocken) started the New Year off by roughly doubling its workforce (from 50 to 100) by acquiring two companies from Barry Diller's Interactive Corp: CityGrid and Felix .

Felix supports a pay-per-call model, and CityGrid provides a local content and advertising network to help brands manage their presence and promote business across hundreds of local information sources. These additions will enhance eLocal's web-based local marketing products.







Moorestown, NJ-based Tabula Rasa ( NASDAQ: TRHC ), which went public at $12.00 in September 2016, has been a pleasant surprise since the IPO, now trading at $61.27. It now has a market cap of $1.25 billion. Tabula Rasa provides data and analytical software which helps to improve healthcare outcomes.
It agreed to acquire Brisbane Australia-based DoseMe for up to $30 million in total consideration. DoseMe's expert systems monitors and calculates the optimal patient IV dosage considering all the meds the patient is receiving. Combined with other Tabula Rasa products, the acquisition will boost its entry into the hospital market.





Bob Moore's (RJMetrics) new startup, CrossBeam , has a brilliant premise: a system to aid companies in building partner ecosystems to help in selling its products or services. Identifying and maintaining the right data sources, as well as a way to help identify possible matches, is key. CrossBeam will likely learn by eating its own dog food.

But its got the seed financing to get moving; a Form D filed last month shows CrossBeam has completed a $3.35 million round , with investors not indicated at this time. It was First Round Capital and others , the Inquirer reported today.