LONDON – After months of speculation on who may be interested in purchasing The Foundry, there is now an answer. A majority investment came from HgCapital, one of the UK’s most prestigious private equity firms.
Comprising experts from technology and business sectors, HgCapital is perceived as one of the top investors in European software. The Foundry will sit within the Technology, Media & Telecommunications (TMT) sector of HgCapital. Under the terms of the deal, HgCapital will assume majority ownership from The Carlyle Group for an enterprise value of £200 million ($312 million US).
“Knowing the direction we plan to take The Foundry, we identified that HgCapital was the ideal partner to build on what The Carlyle Group have helped us achieve,” said Bill Collis, chief executive officer, The Foundry. “Nic [Humphries, managing partner of HgCapital]and his team have such deep software experience, take a long-term view on investing and have an amazing track record in taking already solid companies to even greater levels of success. HgCapital achieve this through investment, both in R&D and people, with a deep respect for customer loyalty and satisfaction.”
“With this deal, we remain one of the few independent companies solely focused on creative industries. This lets us pursue our best-in-class strategy, prioritizing research and innovation; and teaming with other companies to create powerful collective solutions.”
Stated on The Foundry’s website: “The Foundry’s development philosophy centers on the needs of the artists, designers and storytellers identified through our collaborative customer relationships. Solutions, whether built from the ground up, acquired or developed with partners, will always focus on today’s business challenges and future opportunities. This will leverage our world-class experience in visual effects, design and games. It continues our leadership in emerging trends around collaborative ideation, the automation of creativity, concurrent marketing and manufacturing, as well as new behaviours in storytelling, media collaboration, creation and consumption, such as VR and AR.”