Catalyst at heart of £32m Powwownow sale
DEALMAKERS from Catalyst Corporate Finance in Birmingham have advised the shareholders of Via-Vox, trading as Powwownow, on its sale to US-based PGi for around £32.19m.
Founded in 2004, conference calling business Powwownow – based in Richmond, Surrey – serves approximately 240,000 active users in the UK, France and Germany and has a current revenue run rate of approximately £12.2m.
PGi has been a global leader in collaboration and virtual meetings for more than 20 years and its cloud-based solutions deliver multi-point, real-time virtual collaboration using video, voice, mobile, web streaming and file sharing technologies.
It has a presence in 25 countries and an established base of more than 40,000 customers including 75% of the Fortune 100. In the last five years, PGi has hosted nearly one billion people from 137 countries in more 200m virtual meetings.
Paul Lees, founder and CEO of Powwownow, said: “Joining forces with PGi, one of the original innovators in the conferencing and collaboration industry worldwide, expands the scale, reach and service options available to Powwownow customers.
“Powwownow brings PGi new go-to-market capabilities, including our brand awareness, small business marketing expertise and online infrastructure.”
Catalyst was appointed by the shareholders to advise on the possible options for sale to a strategic trade buyer or through a private equity-led buy-out.
The team, led by Richard Sanders and Paul Vanstone, conducted an extensive assessment of the potential trade buyers working closely with its international partners.
Sanders said: “After identifying PGi as the buyer with the strongest strategic fit with Powwownow, our experience of managing a process with an overseas acquirer ultimately led to a successful outcome for all concerned.
“With the benefit of the resources that PGi brings the Business is now well positioned to accelerate its growth plans in the UK and Europe.”
