The price is $62 million. Ex-Libris’ largest shareholder is the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Private equity fund Francisco Partners has made its first investment in Israel, with acquisition of information center software developer Ex-Libris for $62 million. Ex-Libris develops software for information retrieval in academic libraries and is owned by, among others, the Yissum technology transfer company of Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The company was founded in the early 1980s and supplies software for library management. Ex-Libris’ main application is the “Aleph” system, which it sells to students who need to make information searches in libraries. In recent years, it has also developed several other software programs for digital information retrieval.
Ex-Libris raised a few million dollars in 1996 from Walden Israel and Tamar Technology Investors (Israel) LP. The company’s main shareholders are the Hebrew University with a 29% stake, and Walden with 25%. In addition to the proceeds of the sale of Ex-Libris to Francisco Partners, the company’s shareholders will receive a dividend of $10 million.
Ex-Libris has been profitable for several years and was on the verge of making an IPO on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) a year ago, but this was called off. Francisco Partners has some $5 billion under management, which it invests in technology companies. This is its first investment in Israel.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on July 26, 2006
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