Clearlake Capital Group continues to unload portfolio companies at a remarkable clip.
The Santa Monica-based private equity firm announced last week that it sold Calero Software to Riverside Partners for an undisclosed sum. The transaction comes after Clearlake thinned its portfolio substantially this summer, with transactions that include a $1.3 billion July combo sale of Syncsort Inc. and Vision Solutions Inc. to Centerbridge Partners, and a $360 million sale of car-seat maker Futuris Global Holdings.
The Calero deal comes nearly four years after Clearlake created the company by combining three entities – Veramark Technologies, Pinnacle and Movero – into one outfit. The roll-up is based in Rochester, N.Y., and focuses on software solutions related to contract lifecycle management (CLM) for large companies.
Clearlake co-founder and Managing Partner Behdad Eghbali said in a statement that he is proud of turning Calero into a market leader.
“We are pleased to have sponsored Calero in partnership with the talented management team and employees to transform the business and establish the company as a leading player in the attractive and high-growth CLM segment,” he said.
There’s still rumblings in the L.A. private equity community that Clearlake is looking to raise a new fund in the near future, although the firm has kept quiet so far. The target would be in the range of $2 billion to $3 billion, a jump up from the firm’s last fund of $1.38 billion.
Central Valley Squeeze
California’s bread basket is getting more homogenous.
West L.A.-based food and beverage outfit Wonderful Co. acquired Firebaugh-based pomegranate grower and distributor Ruby Fresh Inc. for an undisclosed sum last week.
The move further consolidates the Central Valley holdings of Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who checked in at No. 10 on the Business Journal’s 2017 List of Wealthiest Angelenos with an estimated net worth of $5 billion. The couple owns vast tracks of farmland in the California interior, with pistachio and almond groves alongside pomegranates and other crops.
The Resnicks also own the water rights for an enormous amount of land in the Central Valley.
Wonderful Co. grows pomegranates sold under its Pom Wonderful brand. Ruby Fresh’s employees and facilities will be integrated into Pom Wonderful, the parent company said.
Taking Talent
Beverly Hills-based United Talent Agency last week acquired New York’s Greater Talent Network speakers bureau in a bid to be the market leader in live speaking engagements.
The deal – terms of which were not disclosed – marks another major move in the expansion of UTA in 2017. Earlier this year, the media company took an equity stake in British investment firm AGM Partnership.
“Overnight this makes UTA the global leader among talent agencies on the speaking circuit,” Jay Sure, UTA co-president, said in a statement.
GTN founder Don Epstein, who is now a UTA partner, said in a statement that GTN had received many offers to combine forces with other companies, but chose UTA for its hands-on approach to serving artists, public figures and content providers.
