"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there."
-Yogi Berra
April 08,2013
CompuCom Acquired by Thomas H. Lee Partners
martinwolf Analysis:
- CompuCom Systems, Inc. announced today that private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners (THL) will acquire CompuCom from Court Square Capital Partners.
- CompuCom is an IT Services company specializing in providing infrastructure services to Fortune 500 businesses. The company achieved revenue of more than $2.3 billion in 2012.
- This is the third acquisition of CompuCom by a private equity firm since 2004. In that year, then publicly held CompuCom was purchased by Platinum Equity for $253 million and taken private. In 2007, Platinum sold the company to Court Square for approximately $628 million. It was reported that Platinum made a return of seven times its initial investment
- Now, after five years (a period marked by a global recession) CompuCom is again being sold to a private equity firm, THL. Though financial details were not disclosed, a sales price of approximately $1.1 billion was reported.
- CompuCom’s history shows how value-added resellers can transform themselves with infusions of capital from private equity firms. Today, more than 75 percent of CompuCom’s revenue and gross margins come from its outsourcing services business. The company’s emphasis now is on cloud and mobility integration for large enterprise customers.
- CompuCom’s strength in the mobility sector was highlighted in the company’s press release about the acquisition. This is particularly important because for the next three to five years, mobile devices — such as tablets and smartphones — will be supplanting traditional PCs.
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