Software firm acquired in £15.6m deal
Ruddington software firm Ideagen has made a £15.6m swoop for Sheffield counterpart Qualsys.
Qualsys employs 53 people. Last year it turned over £3.1m and made a profit of £400,000. The firm is growing quickly after diversifying from a consultancy business into a software provider.
The firm’s best-known product is EQMS, a fully-integrated Electronic Quality Management System providing Document Control, Quality Audit, Corrective Action/Preventive Action and Training and Competency functionality. In 2016 Qualsys started to develop a new cloud-native version of the software (Version 7) using the latest web technologies available and has since invested approximately 3m in research and development on Version 7.
The product was launched late last year and has been well-received by the market winning new customers across multiple industries. Version 7 will be rebranded as part of the Q-Pulse product family and integrate into the Quality Management component of the Group’s Quality, Health, Safety and Environment (QHSE) cloud platform.
Meanwhile, Ideagen says trading in its first quarter remained “robust”.
David Hornsby, chairman of Ideagen, said: “We are pleased that trading so far this year has been in line with our expectations and that we today announce the acquisition of Qualsys. Qualsys has a resilient business model, a quality customer base, outstanding technology and a strong team. Qualsys V7 will be an important product for Ideagen as we integrate the software into our cloud platform and accelerate the ARR growth through our proven and established sales engine.”
