{"id":8763,"date":"2026-10-21T22:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T22:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aventis-advisors.com\/?p=8763"},"modified":"2026-10-23T22:16:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T22:16:38","slug":"aptean-acquisitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aventis-advisors.com\/pl\/aptean-acquisitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Aptean Acquisitions: What It Buys and What It Pays, 2015-2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2025 Aptean took Logility, a Nasdaq-listed supply chain planning vendor, private, and bought four smaller companies in the same year. That range, from listed companies down to small ERP vendors, runs through its whole record: 59 completed acquisitions of software companies from 2015 to 2025 in our records, and about $2.0bn spent on acquisitions from 2019 to 2025, according to its group accounts.<\/p>\n

Aptean is based in Alpharetta, Georgia, is owned by TA Associates, Charlesbank, Insight Partners and Clearlake Capital, and sells industry software to manufacturers and distributors. Its revenue grew from $298M in 2020 to $804M in 2025.<\/p>\n

The private companies we can price sold to it at 3.0x to 3.7x revenue, against a median of 3.7x across private software deals, so Aptean pays close to the market for what it wants. It folds each acquisition into one company under its own name, which puts the terms of an owner\u2019s exit and role afterwards on the same footing as the price.<\/p>\n

Aptean\u2019s UK holding company files audited accounts for the whole group, with what it paid for acquisitions each year, and those accounts, together with releases by Aptean and its owners, supply the spend, financials and terms here. The deal list is ours, built from Mergermarket and Aptean\u2019s releases and accounts.<\/p>\n

Aptean Portfolio and Ownership<\/h2>\n

Aptean sells purpose-built software for manufacturers and distributors: ERP, supply chain planning and execution, manufacturing execution, transport management and process automation, organized by industry. It served more than 10,000 customers in more than 80 countries in 2024, according to its release on the Clearlake investment, and its chief executive is TVN Reddy. It was formed in 2012 from the merger of CDC Software and Consona.<\/p>\n

Private equity has owned Aptean throughout the period on this page, and the owners have changed in steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Data<\/th>\nEvent<\/th>\nSource<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Until April 2019<\/td>\nOwned by Vista Equity Partners<\/td>\nGroup accounts 2019<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
April 2019<\/td>\nA new holding company owned by Vista and TA Associates buys Aptean for $750M, funded with $500M of debt and $290M of equity<\/td>\nGroup accounts 2019<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
August 2020<\/td>\nCharlesbank buys a stake from the existing owners; TA, Vista and Charlesbank share control<\/td>\nGroup accounts 2019, subsequent events<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
October 2022<\/td>\nInsight Partners invests alongside TA, which becomes lead shareholder; Vista exits in full<\/td>\nPrivSource; Mergermarket<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
July 2024<\/td>\nClearlake leads a strategic investment, with TA, Insight and Charlesbank remaining<\/td>\nAptean and Clearlake releases<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The accounts for 2025 name TA Associates, Charlesbank, Insight and Clearlake as the controlling parties. The pace of buying rose after the 2019 recapitalization.<\/p>\n

The acquired businesses become part of Aptean itself. Modula, the German ERP group Aptean bought in 2020, now trades as Aptean Germany, and acquired UK companies carry the Aptean name or report as subsidiaries of the group. An owner who sells to Aptean joins a single company whose results consolidate into one balance sheet under one board.<\/p>\n

How Much Aptean Buys<\/h2>\n
\nAptean acquisitions per year<\/text>Completed software acquisitions in our records by year announced, 2015 to 2025 (59 in total)<\/text>0<\/text>2<\/text>4<\/text>6<\/text>8<\/text>10<\/text>5<\/text>2015<\/text>3<\/text>2016<\/text>6<\/text>2017<\/text>1<\/text>2018<\/text>4<\/text>2019<\/text>8<\/text>2020<\/text>6<\/text>2021<\/text>9<\/text>2022<\/text>7<\/text>2023<\/text>5<\/text>2024<\/text>5<\/text>2025<\/text>Source: Aventis Advisors deal database (Mergermarket, Aptean releases and filings)<\/text><\/svg>
Completed control acquisitions of software companies by Aptean and the businesses it owned at the time, by year announced. Darker bars mark 2019 to 2025, the years since the April 2019 recapitalization: 44 of the 59.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aptean’s buying picked up after its 2019 recapitalization: 15 acquisitions from 2015 to 2018, with one in 2018, then 44 from 2019 to 2025. The peak came in 2022, with nine, after eight in 2020 and six in 2021, and Aptean bought five companies in each of 2024 and 2025, the second of those years including Logility, its largest acquisition.<\/p>\n

\nAptean spending on acquisitions<\/text>Purchase price of the year’s acquisitions, US$ million, 2019 to 2025<\/text>0<\/text>200<\/text>400<\/text>600<\/text>189<\/text>2019<\/text>343<\/text>2020<\/text>242<\/text>2021<\/text>284<\/text>2022<\/text>87<\/text>2023<\/text>166<\/text>2024<\/text>684<\/text>2025<\/text>Source: Gator Intermediate Holdco (UK) Ltd group accounts, 2019 to 2025 (Companies House 11899400)<\/text><\/svg>
Total purchase price at closing, net of cash acquired, including deferred amounts where the accounts state them. 2019 covers 23 April to 31 December. 2025 includes the take-private of Logility. Total for 2019 to 2025: about $2.0bn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aptean spent about $2.0bn on acquisitions from 2019 to 2025, according to the purchase prices in its accounts, and the cash flow statements confirm the scale: $1.48bn paid for new businesses, net of the cash they held, from 2021 to 2025. Spending dipped to $87M in 2023 and reached $684M in 2025, the year of the Logility take-private.<\/p>\n

Acquisitions drive Aptean’s growth: revenue rose by $150M in 2025, and the businesses bought that year contributed $141M of it, according to the accounts. EBITDA reached $172M in 2025, a margin of 21 percent, up from $59M in 2021.<\/p>\n

What Size of Company Aptean Buys<\/h2>\n
\nPrice paid, by band<\/text>The 21 acquisitions in our records with a known price, 2015 to 2025, US$<\/text>33%<\/text>33%<\/text>14%<\/text>19%<\/text>Poni\u017cej $25M<\/text>7 deals, 33%<\/text>$25M to $50M<\/text>7 deals, 33%<\/text>$50M to $100M<\/text>3 deals, 14%<\/text>$100M and over<\/text>4 deals, 19%<\/text>Source: Aventis Advisors deal database; Gator Intermediate Holdco (UK) Ltd group accounts<\/text><\/svg>
Prices at closing, net of cash acquired, from Aptean’s group accounts, Logility’s filings and our database. Median $34M. Aptean’s accounts report its smaller acquisitions only as annual totals, so the priced deals lean toward the larger ones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aptean’s group accounts state the price paid at closing, net of the cash in the business, for each of its larger acquisitions, and listed targets publish theirs, which puts a price on 21 of the 59 acquisitions. Across those 21 the median price is $34M, with an interquartile range of $24M to $68M. Four cost $100M or more, and the largest, Logility, was a listed company.<\/p>\n

Aptean buys at two scales. Its accounts report the smaller acquisitions only as annual totals, $162M in all from 2019 to 2025, and the priced deals show the larger scale: 14 of the 21 cost $25M or more. At the 3.1x revenue median on this page, a company with $8M to $22M of revenue would sit inside the interquartile range of the priced deals.<\/p>\n

What Aptean Buys<\/h2>\n

The counts on this page cover software companies. Beyond its 59 software acquisitions, our records show 5 more: four IT services firms that implement or resell business applications, and one other business. Our records classify each software acquisition by the industry its customers work in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Vertical<\/th>\nPrzej\u0119cia<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Industrial, manufacturing and food production<\/td>\n17<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Supply chain, logistics and transport<\/td>\n11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Finance, accounting and ERP<\/td>\n10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Retail, apparel and e-commerce<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other niche verticals<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Government and public sector<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Healthcare and life sciences<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Five other categories, one each<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Outside the software count: IT services and other businesses<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Food and beverage ERP runs deepest, with targets in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and the US that sell to food producers and distributors. Supply chain software covers routing, warehouse management, transport management and, through Logility, planning. Apparel and fashion ERP forms a cluster of its own in North America, and the German, Austrian and Swiss deals cover ERP, manufacturing execution, dealer management and process automation.<\/p>\n

The public sector deals belong to an earlier strategy. Aptean bought four public sector software businesses in 2016 and 2017, then in 2018 merged its public sector business with Superion, TriTech and Zuercher to form CentralSquare Technologies, a separate company. Since 2019 Aptean has bought for manufacturers and distributors, and Nucleus Research, an analyst firm, described its recent deals in March 2026 as building supply chain orchestration, consolidating fragmented mid-market manufacturing software in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and adding industry depth.<\/p>\n

Where Aptean Buys<\/h2>\n
\nWhere the acquisitions in our records were made<\/text>All 59 acquisitions announced 2015 to 2025 and since completed, by target country<\/text>36%<\/text>19%<\/text>17%<\/text>19%<\/text>10%<\/text>Stany Zjednoczone<\/text>21 deals, 36%<\/text>Wielka Brytania i Irlandia<\/text>11 deals, 19%<\/text>Germany, Austria, Switzerland<\/text>10 deals, 17%<\/text>Pozosta\u0142a Europa<\/text>11 deals, 19%<\/text>Kanada<\/text>6 deals, 10%<\/text>Source: Aventis Advisors deal database (Mergermarket, Aptean releases and filings)<\/text><\/svg>
Regional split of the 59 acquisitions in our records, across 13 countries. Rest of Europe: the Netherlands three, Belgium, Denmark and France two each, Czech Republic and Italy one each. Shares are rounded.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aptean buys across North America and Europe. By country, the United States leads with 21 acquisitions, followed by the United Kingdom with 10, Germany with eight and Canada with six. By region, Europe accounts for 32 of the 59 and North America for 27, across 13 countries.<\/p>\n

The balance shifted toward Europe after the 2019 recapitalization. From 2015 to 2018, 14 of Aptean’s 15 acquisitions were in North America; from 2019 to 2025, 31 of 44 were in Europe, starting with Optiware in Denmark and Sanderson in the UK in 2019. Revenue followed the deals: in 2025 the UK generated $137M of Aptean’s revenue and the rest of Europe $240M, together 47 percent of the group, according to its accounts.<\/p>\n

What Aptean Pays: Acquisition Multiples<\/h2>\n

Aptean’s accounts publish what it paid, and company registries and listed targets publish what the businesses earned, so for six acquisitions, a small sample, we can set the price against the target’s revenue.<\/p>\n

\nMultiples Aptean paid, against the private software market<\/text>EV\/Revenue<\/text>Aptean, all priced deals (n=6), median<\/text>3,1x<\/text>Aptean, private targets (n=3), range<\/text>3.0x to 3.7x<\/text>Aptean, listed takeovers (n=3), range<\/text>2.0x to 3.9x<\/text>Private software deals (n=1,325), median<\/text>3,7x<\/text>EV\/EBITDA<\/text>Aptean, listed takeovers (n=2), range<\/text>14.6x to 25.0x<\/text>Private software deals (n=622), median<\/text>19,0x<\/text>Source: Aventis deal database; Aptean group accounts; Companies House; Logility filings; Aventis research, Jan 2026<\/text><\/svg>
The Aptean set combines multiples in our records with prices from Aptean’s group accounts and target revenue from UK company registries and a listed target’s filings. Three of the six were takeovers of listed companies. Samples below five are shown as ranges.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Across the six, the median is 3.1x revenue. The three private companies, all in the UK, sold for 3.0x to 3.7x revenue, and the three listed companies Aptean took over changed hands at 2.0x to 3.9x. Two of the listed takeovers also give an EBITDA multiple, at 14.6x and 25.0x. Across the private software deals in our valuation research the medians are 3.7x revenue and 19.0x EBITDA.<\/p>\n

As arithmetic, 3.1x revenue equals 15.5x EBITDA at a 20 percent margin and 10.3x at 30 percent, so the same revenue multiple can mean a full price or a modest one for cash flow. Aptean’s own EBITDA margin was 21 percent in 2025.<\/p>\n

Aptean pays a market price for a business it wants: the private targets in the set sold at or just below the median multiple of private software deals. It also holds its price under pressure: when a rival bidder made an unsolicited, higher offer for Logility in March 2025, Aptean kept its terms, and Logility’s shareholders approved the deal at the agreed price.<\/p>\n

Aptean funds acquisitions with debt and its owners’ equity. Its accounts describe acquisitions financed through incremental borrowings on a first lien term loan, refinanced in February 2024 at $1.66bn, and on a delayed draw facility upsized by $400M in April 2025, and in 2022 and 2023 through capital contributions from its parent. The 2025 accounts record interest expense of $225M and $345M of undrawn facilities at the year end.<\/p>\n

\n

Have an offer from Aptean?<\/p>\n

If you have an offer from Aptean on your desk, talk to us before you answer it. Aptean is a great buyer: well funded, experienced and with 59 software acquisitions since 2015 behind it. It also pays a little below the market, a median 3.1x revenue on the deals we can price, against 3.7x across private software deals. Our job is to find the buyers who pay more, a strategic acquirer for whom your product fills a gap or a private equity platform that values your business for what it can become, and to put their bids next to Aptean\u2019s. Call us<\/a> before you sign a letter of intent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

How Aptean Structures a Deal<\/h2>\n

Aptean buys whole companies. The stake is stated on 28 of the 59 acquisitions, and on each of them it is 100 percent; Aptean’s accounts describe its acquisitions of 2019 to 2025 as purchases of the whole share capital or, in a 2025 case, of a business’s assets.<\/p>\n

Most of the price is paid at closing. Where the accounts state a deferred or contingent amount, it ranged from under 1 percent to 24 percent of the price, with a median of about 10 percent, and where the accounts give the timing, the deferred part fell due in the year after closing. Contingent consideration, the earn-out type, comes to small sums in the accounts, $1.1M at the most, and the three listed takeovers were paid in cash.<\/p>\n

For a private company, the negotiation and diligence happen in private and the deal is announced once it closes. The listed takeovers run on a public timetable set by shareholder votes: Logility took ten weeks from signing in January 2025 to closing in April.<\/p>\n

A deal with a modest deferred element puts the weight on the fixed terms: the size of the deferred part and what it can be set against, the warranties and indemnities behind the price, and the working capital adjustment, belong in the negotiation alongside the headline number. A private equity platform can offer a different trade, part of the equity rolled into the platform and sold again at its exit, as our guide to sprzeda\u017cy firmy do software roll-upu<\/a> describes.<\/p>\n

What Happens After Closing<\/h2>\n

Aptean integrates what it buys, and the acquired companies take the Aptean name over time: Modula became Aptean Germany, and UK companies such as Drink-IT’s British arm now carry it. The UK businesses it bought, from Paragon to SSG Insight, file their accounts as Aptean subsidiaries under a guarantee from the parent, and the group consolidates them into one set of results. Nucleus Research wrote that the success of its recent deals depends on integrating the acquired technologies and harmonizing data models and product roadmaps.<\/p>\n

Board control passes to Aptean at closing. When it bought 3T Logistics & Technology in November 2023, all five directors of the holding company resigned on 1 November and two Aptean appointees joined the board the same day, and the registered office moved to Aptean’s UK site in Lichfield. Operating leadership can stay: when Aptean bought JobRouter, a German process automation vendor, in December 2024, its co-chief executives said, “As part of Aptean we will continue to invest in our long term growth.” The 2025 accounts record “several management changes in the year to help facilitate the change in direction of the Group”, so the role you take after a sale is a point to settle before signing.<\/p>\n

Aptean also sells businesses: in 2018 it put its public sector business into CentralSquare and sold a group of vertical business applications to ESW Capital, which formed Avolin around them, and in 2020 it sold One iota, a UK software business, to its management. Its owners are private equity firms, and Aptean’s own ownership has changed four times since 2019. A business bought today joins a group that reshapes its portfolio and its shareholder base.<\/p>\n

Aptean and the Other Software Consolidators<\/h2>\n

Aptean belongs to the same market as the serial buyers we profile, and it works differently. Constellation Software, described in our profile of Constellation<\/a>, and Valsoft keep the businesses they buy as separate companies, and Constellation funds its deals from its own cash flow. Aptean combines what it buys into one company, funds deals with debt and private equity capital, and buys larger businesses: its median priced deal, $34M, is about five times the median price in our profile of Valsoft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prices differ as well: Valsoft’s private targets in our data sold for about one times revenue, and Aptean’s for about three times. For an owner, that makes Aptean a strong bidder for a business whose product or market it wants, and a buyer to test against other integrators in the same industry and against private equity.<\/p>\n

Is This a Good Time to Sell to Aptean?<\/h2>\n

Aptean is buying at pace: five acquisitions in 2025, more in 2026, starting with OpsVeda, a US supply chain software vendor, in January, and a fourth private equity owner, Clearlake, since 2024. Its accounts state that it “continues to pursue opportunities to grow through acquisition”, and TA Associates cited the opportunity for strategic acquisitions when Clearlake invested.<\/p>\n

The wider software market repriced in early 2026, as AI coding agents raised questions about parts of a sector that, in our view, was already carrying excessive valuations. In our March 2026 webinar on SaaS valuations<\/a> we noted that the businesses holding up best were smaller, vertically focused and serving mission-critical workflows, and that more buyers now ask how a business is addressing AI disruption risk. Industry ERP and supply chain software for manufacturers matches that description, and Aptean is one of several buyers deploying capital into it.<\/p>\n

The case for selling is strongest for a founder with most of their wealth in one software business, who carries that risk alone. If your product runs core operations for manufacturers or distributors in a niche Aptean already serves, or opens a country or industry it wants, the demand is there now. For an owner whose business is growing and who can carry the risk, keeping the company is a good option too. The latest prices are in our mno\u017cniki wyceny software<\/a> bada\u0144.<\/p>\n

Why You Need an M&A Advisor When Aptean Approaches You<\/h2>\n

The buyer has completed 59 software acquisitions since 2015, with lenders, private equity owners and outside counsel behind it; the owner across the table is selling one business.<\/p>\n

Aptean pays a market price, and that makes the comparison with other buyers more valuable, since a process is what reveals the gap between a market price and the best price available. The strongest way to use an approach is as part of a process: dealing with a single buyer alone, whether it called you or you called it, leaves you to judge its number unaided.<\/p>\n

Establish what the business is worth before the first offer arrives, from comparable transactions and from how a buyer paying about three times revenue will read your margin and your recurring revenue.<\/p>\n

Bring in one or two other buyers, at least one with a different model: a strategic buyer in your industry can pay for what your product adds to its own, and a private equity platform for what the business can become. The second bid tests the first, and together they give you a choice of owner for the years after closing.<\/p>\n

Negotiate the terms as hard as the price: the deferred amount and how it is released, the warranties, and your role in an integrated group all move when a competing bid is on the table. The figures on this page describe a market; your company will be priced in a negotiation.<\/p>\n

That is the work we do for owners of software businesses while they keep running the company, and running it well through the process matters, because how the business performs ends up in the price. For how an approach fits into a wider sale, see jak sprzeda\u0107 firm\u0119 programistyczn\u0105<\/a> i nabywc\u00f3w strategicznych a finansowych<\/a>.<\/p>\n

O Aventis Advisors<\/h2>\n

Aventis Advisors is an M&A advisor for software and technology companies. We believe the world would be better off with fewer but better quality M&A deals, done at the right moment for the company and its owners. Our goal is to provide honest, insight-driven advice that lays out all the options clearly, including the option to keep the status quo.<\/p>\n

Skontaktuj si\u0119 z nami<\/a> aby porozmawia\u0107 o tym, ile mo\u017ce by\u0107 warta Twoja firma i jak przebiega ten proces.<\/p>\n