Francisco Partners

Francisco Partners was founded in August 1999,[7] in Menlo Park, California, during the emergence of dedicated technology buyout firms.[8] Founders Sanford Robertson, Dipanjan Deb, David Stanton, Benjamin Ball, and Neil Garfinkel came from a variety of private equity firms. Robertson had been the founder of the technology-focused investment bank Robertson Stephens, while Deb left TPG Capital in August 1999,[9] in order to help found the firm.[8] Among its notable early investments, in 2000 the firm paid $375 million in cash to purchase 90% of Advanced Micro Devices' communications products division.[10] Francisco Partners then raised $800 million in 2002 to purchase 90% of Global eXchange Services, a unit of the General Electric Company[11][12] handling sales operations for about 30,000 multinational companies.[11]

The firm purchased NPTest in 2003, the semiconductor-testing unit of Schlumberger,[13] and by the following year Francisco Partners had more than 30 active portfolio companies.[14] Francisco Partners purchased Smart Modular from the Solectron Corporation in 2004, with Smart Modular going public two years later.[15] From 2005 until 2010 the firm owned the software company RedPrairie.[16] In 2006 the company led a leveraged buyout of Metrologic Instruments, which makes laser and holographic-based scanners,[17] and also purchased WatchGuard.[18] The firm purchased API Healthcare in 2008,[16] and by 2010 Francisco Partners' other healthcare holdings included AdvancedMD, Healthland, QuadraMed, and T-System.[19]

By 2012, the Francisco Partners' funds had about $7 billion in capital and invested "exclusively in technology companies across sectors including semiconductors, capital equipment and electronics components."[20] That year the company acquired the software company Ichor from American Industrial Partners,[21] as well as Plex Systems,[22] and Kewill.[23] The firm invested in Paymetric in 2013,[24] selling the company to Vantiv in Atlanta, Georgia four years later.[25] After acquiring the e-commerce services company Avangate in 2013,[26] in 2014 the firm invested in the software company Prosper, with Francisco Partners' executive David Golob becoming a Prosper director.[27] Also in 2014, Francisco Partners invested in the information technology company CoverMyMeds,[2] and paid $120 million for a majority stake,[28][29] in the controversial spy company NSO Group,[30][28] sold in 2019.[31] The firm completed raising about $2.9 billion for its fourth fund in 2015.[32] That year, the firm also purchased the California-based analytics company Procera Networks for $240 million and the Israeli workplace management company ClickSoftware Technologies for $438 million.[33] The firm invested in GoodRx in 2015 as well.[34]

Francisco joined with Elliott Management in June 2016 to buy the SonicWall,[18] as well as Quest Software,[35] subsidiaries from Dell as part of the spinoff of Dell Software.[18][36] The SonicWall investment attracted some controversy in the press, as Francisco Partners had also invested in the competitor WatchGuard, going against norms in the private equity industry.[18] Also in 2016, the firm sold Aesynt to Omnicell for $275 million and took Ichor Holdings public with an initial public offering.[35][37] In late 2016, Francisco Partners launched its Agility fund, raising approximately $600 million of committed capital to focus on smaller technology deals.[38] Shortly afterwards, Francisco Partners invested in Dynamo Software,[39] Pet Circle,[40] Discovery Education,[41] and myON, the latter of which was sold in 2018.[42] Additional investments in 2016 and 2017 included companies such as SmartBear Software,[43] iconectiv, and others.[44][45][46][35]

In 2017, Francisco Partners sold CoverMyMeds to McKesson,[47] and Paymetric to Vantiv,[48] and also sold PayLease[49] and Corsair Gaming.[50] Francisco Partners bought, and subsequently sold, James Allen.com in 2017.[51] In June 2017, Francisco Partners also acquired Sandvine, a Canadian public company that was combined with Procera,[52] for $444 million.[53] Francisco Partners was named Private Equity Firm of the Year by Mergers & Acquisitions in 2017.[35] The firm's fifth fund, Francisco Partners V, was formed at the end of 2017 with approximately $4 billion of committed capital.[54] The year after Francisco Partners V's launch, the firm acquired Bomgar Corporation,[55] Renaissance Learning,[56] and LegalZoom.[57] In June 2018, Francisco Partners purchased VeriFone for $3.4 billion.[58] Also in 2018, Blackstone Inc.'s Strategic Capital Group and Goldman Sachs' Petershill program acquired a minority stake in Francisco Partners.[54]

On September 30, 2019, Francisco Partners announced its intent to acquire Orchard Software Corporation, a privately-owned company specializing in medical laboratory software.[59]

In 2020, Francisco Partners joined Diligent Corporation's Modern Leadership Initiative and pledged to create five new board roles among its portfolio companies for gender or ethnically diverse candidates.[60][61]

On October 26, 2020, Francisco Partners announced the acquisition of Forcepoint, a cybersecurity company formerly owned by Raytheon Technologies.[62] Shortly thereafter, the firm bought MyFitnessPal from Under Armour for $345 million.[63] The acquisition completed on December 1, 2020.[64]

On August 31, 2020, the deal closed for Francisco Partners to buy LogMeIn,[65] most known for LastPass password manager, for $4.3 billion together with Evergreen Coast Capital Corp.,[66] a private equity affiliate of Elliott Management. In September 2020, Francisco Partners investment GoodRx went public on the Nasdaq, with a market cap of about $19.4 billion.[67]

On January 11, 2021, Francisco Partners completed acquisition of Forcepoint.[68] In March 2021, the firm entered into a partnership with Zenefits that gave them full control of the company.[69]

Also in early 2021, Francisco Partners acquired MyHeritage for a reported $600 million.[70] In May 2021, Francisco Partners and TPG Capital agreed to acquire cloud-based integration business Boomi from Dell for $4 billion.[71] In July 2021 Francisco Partners acquired STARLIMS from Abbott Informatics.[72] They also completed an acquisition for the EHR vendor OfficeAlly in December 2021.[73][74]

On January 21, 2022, Francisco Partners acquired health data assets from IBM's Watson Health unit. These assets included Health Insights, MarketScan, Clinical Development, Social Program Management, Micromedex, and imaging software offerings.[75] The assets were valued at a reported $1 billion.[76]

Also in 2022, Francisco Partners announced the acquisition of bswift from CVS Health. bswift is a provider of software and services for benefits and human resources administration.[77]

In July 2023, together with TPG Inc., Francisco Partners agreed to acquire web tracking and analytics firm New Relic in an all-cash deal valued at $6.5 billion.[78]

In August 2023, IBM agreed to sell The Weather Company to Francisco Partners for an undisclosed sum.[79]