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Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

SS&C Technologies

SS&C Technologies – An American Tech Company That Provides SaaS To The Finance Sector.

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SS&C Technologies Holdings Inc is a fintech company based in Windsor, Connecticut. The company mainly sells software and SaaS (software as a service) to financial service companies. SS&C has a worldwide market and it is traded as a public company and listed in Russell 1000 component. William C. Stone founded this company in 1986 and he is still serving as the chairman of the board. The company has more than 24,000 employees and in the past years, it has acquired numerous businesses that specializes in specific fintech markets.

History Of SS&C Technologies

Founded in 1986, SS&C Technologies went public after ten years but again it was privatized in a leveraged buy-out followed by a second IPO. Currently, SS&C is a public company and it is known for acquiring companies from various horizons which brings a new customer base and unique product lines for specific sectors. They are mainly focused on bringing new products and talents into the company and increase its subsidiaries.

Till 2017, SS&C completed 47 acquisitions in total from the day it was officially launched. In its history of acquiring companies, SS&C made the largest acquisition went it bought Advent Technologies for $2.7 billion. This helped SS&C increase the intensity of its presence in the financial tech sector because Advent was one of its biggest competitors. This acquisition helped SS&C gain a big software company whose products were used by 4,300 various investment fund managers.

In 2005, SS&C Technologies acquired a company called Financial Models Company Inc for $17.70 per share. The company was a leading technology solutions provider for the investment world. The acquisition was completed in cash. SS&C spend a total of $10.13 million for buying the shares of this company and at the end of the deal, the total share of 91 percent was owned by SS&C. This marks another important acquisition in the history of SS&C because the company had to win a bidding war where several other companies participated as well.

SS&C Technologies
Image source: www.worldipreview.com

Recent Years

The last decade started with SS&C acquiring a broker-neutral system provider called Tradeware Global. After two years, SS&C acquired a Texas-based business called Hedgemetrix and this new deal brought twenty customers to the company. Currently, Hedgemetrix is a part of SS&C’s GlobeOp business. The same year, SS&C acquired another company called Thomson Reuter’s PORTIA. The deal was closed for $170 million. For $95 million in cash, SS&C acquired DST Global Solutions and it helped the company target Asia-Pacific locations and EMEA.

In 2015, the company announced that it would be acquiring Citigroup’s Alternative Investor Services business. This deal was closed for $425 million and the acquisition included Hedge Fund Services and Private Equity Fund services. The next company SS&C acquired was Primatics Financial for $122 million from the Carlyle Group and in 2016 the acquisition of Wells Fargo’s Global Fund Services Business took place. This strengthened the fund relationship of SS&C and also brought 384 new employees to the company. Some of the other companies acquired by SS&C in recent years are Salentica, Conifer Financial Services, DST Systems, etc.

Awards

In the last 35 years, SS&C Technologies has been the recipient of several awards and accolades. William C. Stone, for his immense contribution to the financial service industry, received the 2012 Entrepreneurial award from Marquette University. In 2015, the company received Custody Risk Americas Awards for the GlobeOp business unit. It also received the best portfolio accounting title for the Advent Geneva platform and also won WealthManagement.com industry awards for account aggregation.

SS&C Technologies – Founder

William C. Stone is famous as the founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of SS&C Technologies. Stone went to Marquette University and acquired a business administration degree in 1977 and started his company in 1986. Stone initially started the business from his home in Connecticut which has taken a gigantic shape today. Before founding the company, he worked at KPMG.

Constellation Software

Constellation Software – A Multinational Conglomerate That Acquires And Builds Software Companies.

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Constellation Software is a Canadian-based diversified software company. The headquarters of the company is based in Toronto, Ontario. In 1996, a former venture capitalist, Mark Leonard founded Constellation Software Inc. The main idea of the company is to buy exceptional and good businesses in their respective verticals based on a few criteria. After the acquisition, CSI studies the history of the company to help it grow and become the number one player in the market. It helps the good businesses become exceptional and the exceptional businesses have consistent growth and profitability.

About Constellation Software

Founded in 1996, CSI is a public traded company and is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company went public in 2006 and it is also a constituent of the S&P/TSX 60. Currently, CSI has 6 operating segments and the company server globally with 16,000 employees. The annual revenue of the company is over $3 billion. CSI acquires companies in various fields ranging from software businesses to construction companies.

Acquisition Criteria of CSI

The companies that are selling their business units or the entire company to CSI can be due to various reasons. Maybe the companies find a new interest in a different sector or reasons of health, estate planning, etc. But, the main idea of CSI is to hold the status of an exceptional company and run it following its past. And, in case of a good company that CSI acquires it tries to understand the factors which have hindered it from becoming an exceptional company.

Constellation Software
Image source: globenewswire.com

Business Strategy

The main target of the company is to acquire as many good and exceptional companies as possible and hold them back for a long time. CSI was founded in 1996 and since then it has acquired around 500 companies. CSI focuses on a lot of sectors for acquiring the top market players from each sector. It has its main interest in vertical market software companies that create industry-focused software. Depending on the history of the company, past growth, profitability, and acquisitions, CSI takes a decision. It also buys companies that haven’t made significant growth but show huge potential.

The business strategy of CSI has proved to be very impactful for the growth of the company. The value of its stocks has increased to 30 folds since it filed IPO. Most of the acquisitions of CSI are small, i.e., ranging below $5 million. One of the biggest acquisitions in the history of CSI was acquiring Acceo Solutions in January 2018. The deal was closed at $250 million. In recent years, CSI experiences very tough competition in acquiring companies. The main competitors in the market are private equity and hedge funds. CSI generates most of its revenue from the US (52%) followed by Europe and Canada.

Operations Of Constellation Software

There are six operating segments of CSI. The first segment is Volaris Group which focuses on buying software businesses in various sectors (finance, education, agriculture, etc). The second is Harris Computer Systems which mainly focuses on serving the public sectors and it includes utilities, education, and healthcare. The third one is for the hospitality and construction sector and it is called Jonas Software. Under this segment, CSI has 70 companies. The fourth segment is Vela Software which focuses on the industrial sector and especially on oil and gas manufacturing companies. Perseus Operating Group is the fifth segment and it focuses on pulp and paper business and real estate. Last but not least is the Total Specific Solutions which focuses on the UK and Europe-based software companies.

About Mark Leonard – Constellation Software

Mark Leonard is a billionaire and an entrepreneur who started CSI in 1995. He is currently President and Chairman of the Board in CSI. Mark went to the University of Guelph and the University of Western Ontario. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Mark worked as a bounder, mason, wind energy researcher, and some other jobs.

Danaher Corporation

Danaher Corporation – A Fortune 500 Company That Develops Products For The Medical And Industrial Sector.

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Danaher Corporation is a multinational conglomerate based in America. The headquarters of the company is in Washington, D.C. This year, Danaher ranked 130th on the Fortune 500 list. Steven M. Rales and Mitchell Rales founded the company in 1969 when it was called DMG. Danaher is one of the largest companies in North America and it adopted the principles of “Kaizen”, a Japanese philosophy to continuously improve and eliminate waste. Danaher has three platforms, namely, Life Sciences, Diagnostics, and Environment & Applied Sciences.

The Founding Story Of Danaher Corporation

In 1969, Steven Rales and Mitchell Rales organized the company as a Massachusetts real estate investment firm. They established the company under the name DMG which was changed to Diversified Mortgage Investors Inc in 1978. In 1984, the name of the company was again changed to Danaher Corporation and it was reincorporated under the Delaware General Corporation Law. The name Danaher was given by the Rales when they went on a fishing trip to Danaher, a tributary in Western Montana.

In 1986, Danaher merged with multiple companies when it bought Chicago Pneumatic. The Jacobs Manufacturing Co and Matco Tools Corp were under the acquisition of Chicago Pneumatic when Danaher bought the company. But, after a year, Danaher sold off CP and retained Matco and Jacobs at the same time. In the 1990s other divisions of Danaher were established. After Danaher Corporation was established in 1984, it acquired 12 companies to enter the manufacturing market within two years. In the Instrumentation Unit of Danaher, the company added Qualitrol and Gilbarco Veeder-Root. The company also acquired Kollmorgen, a company based in Virginia.

Danaher Corporation
Image source: rodpub.com

Early Growth And Expansion

The acquisition spree of Danaher kept continuing as it acquired red Easco Hand Tools in 1990. Next year, Danaher landed a big contract for Sears and it became the main supplier for hand tools. After it landed this contract, Danaher acquired multiple tools companies like Armstrong and Allen. It also expanded its presence in the chemical industry after acquiring Hach company in 1999 followed by a German company called Lange.

In 2005, Danaher announced that it will acquire Leica Microsystems which was known for manufacturing a broad range of products for microscopic imaging, measurement, and analysis. Eventually, Danaher entered the market of life science and started providing management systems in the healthcare sector. In 2007, the company acquired the Australian Pathology Instrument and Engineering company called Vision Systems Limited. The same year it acquired Tektronix Inc which is the company’s largest acquisition till today. The deal was closed for $1.1 billion. In 2009, Danaher acquired the analytics technology business unit of the Canadian-based company, MDS Inc.

Present Days

In the last decade, Danaher acquired Beckman Coulter followed by Navman Wireless in the next year. During this time, the company also sold its joint venture with Cooper Industries to Bain Capital for $1.6 billion. Danaher carried out another big acquisition in 2013 as it acquired Nobel Biocare for $2.2 billion. In 2014, Danaher and NetScout agreed to combine the communication unit of the former company with NetScout Systems. Many other companies were also acquired in the past years which includes Pall for $13.8 billion, Phenomenex for $700 million, Integrated DNA Technologies for an undisclosed amount, and many more.

In 2018, Danaher decided to spin off its dental segment and make it an independent company. Next year, it sold numerous business units to Sartorius AG for $750 million. The same year, Danaher appeared on the Forbes list for becoming one of the best employers for diversity. Last year, Tom Joyce retired as the CEO of the company and he was replaced by Rainer Blair.

Rainer M. Blair – CEO

Rainer Blair is the President and CEO of the company. He joined the Danaher Corporation in 2010 and held various leadership roles in the company. He has 30-years of industrial experience. Before joining Danaher, he was the CEO and President of MAPEI Americas, and before that he spent fifteen years with BASF Group.

Qualtrics

Qualtrics – A 19-years Old American Company Funded By Top Venture Capitalists.

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In 2002, Ryan Smith along with his brother, father, and a friend co-founded Qualtrics. Qualtrics is an experience management company that is spread across the world. It has two headquarters in the US, one in Washington and the other one in Utah. Qualtrics is a public company listed on NASDAQ and it has more than 4,000 employees. The company specializes in experience management and provides a cloud-based platform for the same on a subscription basis.

About Qualtrics

In 2002, the company was founded by Ryan Smith, Scott M. Smith, Jared Smith, and Stuart Orgill. Currently, Ryan Smith is the executive chairman while the other members have departed from the company. Zig Serafin is the present CEO of the company. After a decade of founding the company, Qualtrics landed funding from the top two venture capital firms in the US, Sequoia Capital, and Accel. They invested consecutively in two funding rounds and the valuation of Qualtrics became $1 billion in 2014.

In 2018, SAP announced that it would acquire company for $8 billion and the deal was completed in 2019. Two years later, SAP expressed its intention to take Qualtrics public, and thus in January 2021 it was listed in NASDAQ. This year, an executive member of Microsoft, Brad Anderson left the company to join Qualtrics. In 2016 and 2017, the company appeared on the Forbes 100 Cloud List ranking 12th and 6th respectively.

Qualtrics
Image source: phenompeople.com

History of Qualtrics

When the Smiths along with Stuart Orgill started the company it was mainly a single-product survey company. The academics used this product to conduct research and it was not an ideal business model for a fresh start-up. They were initially serving a very small market with customers who weren’t willing to pay too much. As a result, Qualtrics was unable to land any investors in the early days.

One way to turn the future of the company was to make it a multiproduct company and by 2010 company was able to expand in various sectors. The products of the company helped many organizations to manage customer experience, perform market research, and get employee insights. The change in the business model of Qualtrics helped it attract two top venture capital firms in the country. The series A funding round took place in 2012 where Sequoia Capital and Accel jointly invested $70 million followed by another round of investment in 2014 by the same firms. After these two rounds, the valuation of the company reached $1 billion.

Recent Years

In 2017, Company launched its first experience management platform (XM) to help companies oversee the main four business experiences which are customer, employee, product, and brand. After launching this successful product, SAP showed interest in acquiring the company and the deal was closed in 2019 for $8 billion. In early 2021, the opening price of Qualtrics valued the company three times the amount. Throughout the journey of Qualtrics, the company has rigorously rebuilt the teach stack, replaced codes, and rearranged the company’s structure. It has taken many huge risks and reached its highest potential.

After becoming a multiproduct company, Qualtrics has made two acquisitions. In 2016, it acquired a startup called Statwing and after two years it acquired Delighted. The sum for the acquisition was not disclosed for either of the company. Qualtrics has also received several awards and accolades. Last year, the company earned the designation of “Leader” in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Voice of Customers. The Core XM platform of Company was chosen by Edison Awards in the Applied Technology category for the gold winner.

Zig Serafin – CEO

Zig Serafin is the present CEO of the company. He joined Qualtrics in 2016 as the Chief Operating Officer and contributed to the development and launch of the Qualtrics XM Platform. Under his leadership, Qualtrics experienced very rapid growth and increased its customers to more than 13,000. Before joining Qualtrics, Zig worked at Microsoft for 17 years. He was the Corporate Vice President when he left the company.

BMC Software

BMC Software – An American Software Company Founded By Former Shell Oil Employees.

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BMC Software is an American company and it is one of the leading developers and providers of independent system software. The company’s headquarters is based in Houston, Texas, and has several offices both in the state and overseas. BMC Software operates worldwide and some major markets include Tel Aviv, Israel, Germany, France, Indian, and Singapore.

The company mainly offers Software as a Service (SaaS) and on-premise software and services. It has a great impact on today’s cloud computing and IT management and automation sector. BMC Software is a privately held company and it generates annual revenue of more than $2 billion. It has around 6,000 employees and made many significant acquisitions between 1994 and 2000.

The Founding Story of BMC Software

The three founders of BMC Software are Scott Boulette, John Moores, and Dan Cloer. All three co-founders were former employees of Shell Oil when they started working on this new project. They kept the name of the company after the initials of their surname. Moore got the idea of developing a new software when he worked as a programmer with Shell Oil. During those days, the software that dominated the market and business was mainly written for IBM mainframes. Moores wanted to develop a more efficient version of this software that would compress data streams and speed up the compression process.

He was successful in building the software and he named it 3270 Optimizer. This was the first product of BMC Software and to make this a huge success, Moores hired the best software developers and paid them generous packages. But this is also one of the reasons why profit margin was very low for the company. But, Moores brought in a very powerful team and within few years with innovative marketing methods, it started catching the interest of many venture capitalists.

BMC Software
Image source: wikimedia.org

Growth and Expansion

In 1982, a venture capitalist called Jacqueline Morby took interest in the company and gave Moores some direction on how to increase the profit. After four years, BMC started making 20 percent profit of the annual revenue and 30 percent of its total customers were international clients. In 1988, BMC Software announced its IPO and it was listed on NASDAQ. The business became very profitable and by the next year, the sale jumped from $93 million to $139.5 million.

During this time, BMC Software hopped into an acquiring spree and started with Trimar Software Systems Ltd and Trimar Software International Ltd. In 1991, the company acquired Integrity Solutions followed by Patrol Software in 1994. In 1996, it acquired two companies, namely, HawkNet and PEER Networks but the price was not revealed. In 1997, it acquired Data tools and in 1998 bought Boole & Babbage and BGS Systems. It acquired New Dimension Software in 1999 and Optisystems in 2000.

Privatization

In 2013, BMC Software announced that it was selling the company to a group of major private equity investments groups. The deal was closed at $6.9 billion. In September 2013, the process was finally complete and BMC became a privately held company. In 2018, BMC was acquired by a global investment firm, KKR & Co Inc.

John Moores – The Mastermind Behind BMC Software

John Moores is a famous American entrepreneur and philanthropist who is well-known as the founder of BMC Software. He went to Texas A&M University but dropped out and became a programmer at IBM. Later he went to the University of Houston and completed his bachelor’s degree in economics. Apart from co-founding BMC Software, he was also the lead venture capital financier for Peregrine Systems. After Moores founded BMC Software in 1980 he was the CEO of the company till 1987.

Ayman Sayed – CEO

In 2019, Ayman Sayed became the new president and CEO of the company. Before joining BMC Software, Ayman served as the president and CPO at a Fortune 500 company called CA Technologies. He also has prior work experience at Cisco Systems where he was given the position of senior vice president.

Xero

Xero – A New Zealand-based Cloud Software Platform For SMEs.

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Xero is a cloud-based software platform that was founded in 2006. It provides Software as a Service (SaaS) and it is a public company listed in the Australian Securities Exchange. Rod Drury is the founder of the company and Steve Vamos is the present CEO. Xero mainly develops accounting software and it is based in Wellington, New Zealand. Apart from the headquarters in Wellington, the company has two other offices in New Zealand. Xero’s products are sold by subscription and are used in more than 180 countries.

About The Company

In 2006, Rod Drury along with Hamish Edwards founded Xero. When they founded the company, it was originally called Accounting 2.0. With time company has grown beyond New Zealand and it has established offices in Australia, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Africa. In 2017, Xero crossed the mark of having 1 million customers worldwide. It has also landed more than one million subscribers in Australia and New Zealand. From 2006 till 2018, Rod Drury acted as the CEO of the company and he was placed by Steve Vamos in early 2018.

Xero
Image source: wikimedia.org

Origin Of Xero

Before founding the company, Rod Drury explored a lot of other opportunities in the entrepreneurial ground. He tried bespoke software development in Microsoft Access and SQL Server but it was sold off in 1999. Then he started a documentation management startup followed by building an RDBMS for Microsoft Exchange and selling it to Quest Software. Selling the software gave Rod capital for starting Xero. He was also one of the board members of Trade Me that was sold for half a billion US dollars. With the total capital he raised, he was ready to launch Xero.

Xero As a Public Company

The idea of opening a business for cloud-based accounting software clicked in Rod’s mind when he was working at Arthur Young (now part of Ernst & Young). So, eventually, he started planning and raising money to launch the company. In 2007, Xero became a public company and got listed on the New Zealand Exchange (NZD) with a $15 million IPO. For the first few years, the company mainly focused on expanding and strengthening its presence in the New Zealand market and then entered the Australian market and went public there in 2012. In 2018, the company removed its name from NZD and was only listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. After one year, Xero became the third most valuable publicly traded company from New Zealand.

Fundings

In 2009, Xero received funding of $23 million and it was led by Craig Winkler, founder of MYOB. In 2010, it raised $4 million from Valar Ventures, and again in 2012 raised $16.6 million from the same firm. Xero raised $49 million in late 2012 and the major investors were Peter Thiel and Matrix Capital. In May 2013, the valuation of the company became $1.4 billion on the NZE. In October 2013, the two main investors invested another $180 million and with this, the total funding received by company became $230 million. In 2015, a new investor, Accel provided funding of $100 million to Xero. The company bagged the award of the best hybrid deal by Finance Asia in 2018.

After Xero became a public company it acquired a series of businesses. In 2011, Company acquired Paycycle, an Australian online payroll provider, and next year it acquired Spotlight Workpapers. In 2018, Xero established a joint venture with the US payroll platform, Gusto and acquired a data capture solution company called Hubdoc. The company acquired an Australian startup called Waddle that does invoice financing. This year, Xero acquired two companies till now which are Planday and Tickstar AB.

About The Founder

Rod Drury is a famous entrepreneur based in New Zealand. He became famous after founding Xero where he also continued as the CEO till 2018. Rod went to Victoria University of Wellington and started his career with Arthur Young, an accounting firm. Apart from founding Xero, Rod has also co-founded Context Connect and AfterMail.