Kennet Venture Partners Ltd (“Kennet”), a leading international venture capital firm focused on the technology sector, today announces the sale of portfolio company Cramer to Amdocs, an industry leader in solutions that enable integrated customer management, for $375 million (£205 million). Cramer is a leading provider of operations support systems (OSS) solutions. The sale is expected to close in August of this year.
Kennet invested a total of $5million in Cramer in two financings, the first of which took place in September 1999. The acquisition of Cramer, which was made net of the company’s significant cash reserves, will provide Kennet with a double-digit multiple of its $5 million investment. Kennet managing director, David Carratt has been a member of Cramer’s board of directors since 1999. Cramer has experienced significant growth over the past four years. In addition, Cramer has become recognized as a leading provider of software products within the OSS domain with customers such as Bell Canada, KPN, TDC, Telefonica and Vodafone.
As a result of the acquisition, Amdocs will be the only company to deliver an end-to-end solution spanning OSS and customer-facing business support systems (BSS), such as billing and customer relationship management (CRM).
David Carratt, managing director of Kennet Venture Partners, said: “Cramer has demonstrated consistent growth over the long term due to the vision and leadership of the founding team. The combination of a clear view of the market opportunity, highly professional staff and an exemplary management team led by CEO, Guy Dubois, made Cramer an attractive acquisition target.”
Dave Embleton, Chairman of Cramer, said: “Kennet’s contribution has been to help the founders to achieve their plans through evaluating ideas, leading the recruitment of senior executives and appraising alternative strategies. Kennet’s long term, knowledge-based approach to investment in Cramer has allowed the company to grow to what it has become today – the leading provider in its sector. This transaction with Amdocs will enable the company to continue to lead change and innovation in the telecoms industry.”
Kennet Venture Partners is a leading international venture capital firm which invests in growth companies providing information technology products and business services that leverage information technology. Kennet provides expansion capital to businesses that want to accelerate growth and build exceptional shareholder value in partnership with an experienced investor. Kennet Venture Partners acts as an advisor to Kennet I LP, a Jersey limited partnership and to Kennet II LP, a Guernsey limited partnership. Kennet Venture Partners is authorized and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
Cramer is the leading provider of operational support system (OSS) software that is changing the economics of telecom. Cramer offers the industry's only complete, end-to-end service fulfillment solution, enabling providers to introduce and deliver new products and services quickly and cost effectively. Leading service providers continue to deploy Cramer's solutions and include Bell Canada, KPN, TDC, Telefonica, TeliaSonera and Vodafone. Cramer has partnerships with industry leaders including Accenture, Alcatel, Amdocs, Ericsson, HP, IBM, Oracle and SAP. Customers can also take advantage of Cramer's world class consulting, support and education capabilities delivered by Cramer Global Services.