Thoma Bravo purchases Telestream
One interesting acquisition story buried at the back end of last year: private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo, LLC entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Telestream, Inc. “The transaction will facilitate further growth of Telestream’s core businesses in addition to providing additional capital for further market expansion and acquisition,” said a statement.
“This acquisition recognizes Telestream’s history of market leadership, double-digit growth and profitability,” said a pleased Dan Castles, Telestream’s co-founder and CEO. “That growth would not be possible without our original investors and dedicated team of employees who have demonstrated a strong commitment to our customers. We look forward to our next phase of growth and expansion with Thoma Bravo as we continue to play a leadership role in the digital media industry.”
For more than 13 years, Telestream has been at the forefront of innovation, pioneering file-based video encoding and transcoding solutions for media and entertainment companies, enterprises, and consumers. According to 2011 reports by business research firms Frost & Sullivan and In-Stat, the worldwide multi-format transcoders market is poised for strong growth.
According to Mukul Krishna, Global Director, Digital Media at Frost & Sullivan, “Vendors like Telestream have been helping to fuel growth in the digital video market by providing solutions that help media companies meet the challenges of scalability and economically creating and delivering the massive volumes of content demanded by a multi-screen environment.”
“Frost & Sullivan has recognized Telestream for its best practices multiple times and based on Frost & Sullivan’s analysis, Telestream is the market leader for the global video transcoders market,” adds Avni Rambhia, Senior Industry Analyst, Digital Media at Frost & Sullivan.
“Thoma Bravo is excited to partner with Telestream’s existing management team to continue to expand the company’s market leadership position,” said Holden Spaht, partner at Thoma Bravo. “We look forward to building on the company’s impressive reputation for product innovation, strategic acquisitions, and world-class customer service.”
“The video ecosystem continues to grow and expand as customers require increasingly complex tools to manage their end-to-end video workflows,” said A.J. Rohde, vice president at Thoma Bravo. “Thoma Bravo sees significant opportunity in the digital media market, and Telestream is well positioned as a strong platform for increased investment in the industry.”
Telestream has been profitable since 2001 and has self-financed three acquisitions: compression specialist Popwire in 2006; live webcasting and screencasting provider Vara Software Ltd. in 2008; and Anystream, a leading provider of automated multi-platform media publishing solutions in 2010. At the close of 2011 Telestream brings thirteen straight years of record sales growth.
The transaction is expected to close in early January 2012. Terms of the deal were not disclosed as both companies are privately held. Telestream will continue to operate as an independent entity with existing management teams continuing their current roles. Headquarters will remain in Nevada City, California with offices in Virginia, Sweden and Germany.