• AHEAD, a provider of enterprise service management, cloud infrastructure and mobility solutions, announced today that it had been acquired by private equity firm Court Square Capital. Financial information was not disclosed.
• Founded in 2007, AHEAD offers cloud services and solutions to more than 400 clients in the Healthcare, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Retail and other verticals.
• Court Square Capital manages approximately $5 billion in aggregate capital commitments and has made over 200 investments. It has been particularly active in the technology and solution provider space, and its portfolio companies include unified communications provider and martinwolf client SPS, acquired in Sept. 2011.

New Focus, Same Story

• Cloud as an Opportunity: AHEAD’s cloud-oriented portfolio of solutions and services makes them an attractive candidate for private equity firms looking to capitalize on a growing market segment. With the cloud storage market forecast to hit $65.4B by 2020 (a 28% CAGR from 2015), AHEAD provides an opportunity to tap in to an area of sustained growth.
• A Proven Process: Court Square has achieved significant success with prior investments, providing resources to solution providers and creating significant value. In Sept. 2011, it made an investment in unified communications provider SPS-now #74 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 list. In 2013, Court Square exited its investment in CompuCom Systems by selling it to Thomas H. Lee Partners for about $1.1 billion-a hefty profit considering it paid $504 million to buy it in 2007.
• Consolidation Continues: This transaction follows Sirius’s acquisition by Kelso in early September. It has been a busy year for private equity companies and IT solution providers, with Virgo Capital acquiring Sayers, Clearlake Capital portfolio company Tolt Solutions acquiring Pomeroy, and countless similar transactions from earlier in the year. As private equity firms continue to supplant public markets in the solution provider space, expect many more to come.

For more information about this transaction, click here to read the press release.