OREANDA-NEWS. SoftwareONE, one of the leading global providers of software portfolio management solutions, announced today its partnership with KKR, a leading global investment firm, whereby KKR will provide growth capital and acquire a 25% minority stake position in the company. The four founding partners and existing shareholders together with the management team will retain a 75% stake in the company and will continue to manage and grow the business with its unique culture on an independent and long-term sustainable basis.

SoftwareONE offers software licensing and procurement services, software asset management, technology consulting and cloud services to more than 25,000 customers in 115 countries around the world. The company is a leading channel partner for Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, VMWare, SAP and a further 9,000 software publishers and provides digitized platforms for procurement and self-consumption services. The company is headquartered in Switzerland and employs over 2,500 software professionals.

"As a founder-owned company, we take great care in choosing our partners and we are delighted to partner with KKR, which shares our entrepreneurial philosophy and cultural values," said

Daniel von Stockar, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of SoftwareONE.

Patrick Winter, the CEO, added: "We, at SoftwareONE, continue to work hard at serving our customers and supporting our software publisher partners all around the world. The software industry is changing, and together with KKR, we see a unique opportunity to capitalize on those changes and continue to increase the value we bring to our customers, in particular in the areas of cloud and value-added services."

KKR has a strong track record of successful collaborations with leading founder-owned companies in Switzerland, Europe and globally, both as a minority and majority shareholder. KKR builds on its international network and expertise to support its partners in both strategic and operational matters. The investment in SoftwareONE will be made primarily by the KKR European Fund IV.

Johannes Huth, Head of KKR Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: "The partnership with SoftwareONE follows our strategy of investing behind strong European entrepreneurs and their teams to help them grow their businesses in international markets, in particular the US and Asia."

Jean-Pierre Saad, Director in KKR's Private Equity Technology team in Europe, said: "Proliferation of software applications, growth in cloud adoption and increasing complexity of enterprise IT environments is the new reality within corporate IT departments. As experts in all stages of the software lifecycle, SoftwareONE is uniquely positioned to benefit from those trends and continue to offer innovative solutions to address its customers' needs. We are delighted to accompany SoftwareONE in this journey and provide them with growth capital for further organic expansion and M&A."

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The transaction is subject to customary approvals and is expected to close in fall 2015.

About SoftwareONE

Privately owned since 1985, SoftwareONE is the leading global provider of Software Portfolio Management (SPM) services. By combining our commercial, technology, compliance and governance expertise covering the full lifecycle of our clients' software needs, we support our customers by ensuring their IT investments are cost-effectively road mapped towards their unique business needs. Our SPM Framework helps IT leaders to define their digitized technology roadmap and cost-efficiently manage their software assets through the lifecycle. Globally headquartered in Stans, Switzerland with sales in 115 countries, our certified consultants help our customers optimize their software spend through our elite sales designations and deep-rooted relationships with top publishers such as Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, VMware, Oracle, Citrix, Symantec, McAfee, and many more. 

About KKR

KKR is a leading global investment firm that manages investments across multiple asset classes including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit and hedge funds. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and driving growth and value creation at the asset level. KKR invests its own capital alongside its partners' capital and brings opportunities to others through its capital markets business. References to KKR's investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds.