As I mentioned below, OpenSpirit was a sort of a venture funded company.
One of the venture companies who invested in us was Kenda Capital, who took over the Shell Technology Ventures funds, and then added additional capital from Coller Capital and the Abu Dhabi Investment authority. These two funds make up just under 50% of the ownership of the fund.
OpenSpirit, while not the largest of the Kenda portfolio companies has the distinction of being one of their more profitable ones. So Kenda decided it was time to "set us free" and gave a very strong directive, via their Class Two director, to put the Company on the market.
I worked with the Chairman of our Board to review and evaluate various investment bankers to help us with this task. We talked to some local Houston i-bankers, and also several based in California. We finally decided that the Company would be better represented by an investment banker without ties to the oil industry - as we felt that our value would be optimized by a horizontal player, not an oil field service company.
We decided to use Holihan Lokey, and never looked back.
We pitched over 20 companies with the deck. I traveled to San Francisco several times to find the best place for the Company to land.
We found that TIBCO was most interested, and they showed their interest very early. We got an LOI (that is, letter of intent) in November of 2009, and started negotiating immediately.
The Company's investors were not too thrilled with the offer. Well, let me put it this way. Not all the investors were happy with the offer. There was a certain amount of politics being played regarding our technology, and who would be the best steward thereof. But we all were finally in agreement that TIBCO would be an excellent acquiring company.
That conclusion was reached in February of 2010.
From February to the end of September, we did nothing but negotiate the terms and conditions of the deal. Very few of the contentious issues surrounded the price of the Company. They all revolved around indemnifications and representations and warranties. Again, discretion does not allow me to go into great detail regarding these issues, but let me say that the legal fees around this deal became a major cost to all sides concerned.
But we did manage to get the deal done and closed - right around September 21nd.
Then I started working for TIBCO as their VP of OpenSpirit.
OpenSpirit, while not the largest of the Kenda portfolio companies has the distinction of being one of their more profitable ones. So Kenda decided it was time to "set us free" and gave a very strong directive, via their Class Two director, to put the Company on the market.
I worked with the Chairman of our Board to review and evaluate various investment bankers to help us with this task. We talked to some local Houston i-bankers, and also several based in California. We finally decided that the Company would be better represented by an investment banker without ties to the oil industry - as we felt that our value would be optimized by a horizontal player, not an oil field service company.
We decided to use Holihan Lokey, and never looked back.
We pitched over 20 companies with the deck. I traveled to San Francisco several times to find the best place for the Company to land.
We found that TIBCO was most interested, and they showed their interest very early. We got an LOI (that is, letter of intent) in November of 2009, and started negotiating immediately.
The Company's investors were not too thrilled with the offer. Well, let me put it this way. Not all the investors were happy with the offer. There was a certain amount of politics being played regarding our technology, and who would be the best steward thereof. But we all were finally in agreement that TIBCO would be an excellent acquiring company.
That conclusion was reached in February of 2010.
From February to the end of September, we did nothing but negotiate the terms and conditions of the deal. Very few of the contentious issues surrounded the price of the Company. They all revolved around indemnifications and representations and warranties. Again, discretion does not allow me to go into great detail regarding these issues, but let me say that the legal fees around this deal became a major cost to all sides concerned.
But we did manage to get the deal done and closed - right around September 21nd.
Then I started working for TIBCO as their VP of OpenSpirit.
