Francisco Partners

Because if you think about at the senior level, these bets, and you know this, Matt, these bets are so big.

I mean, one of the Ryan Green in the book at Francisco Partners talks about these are billion dollar bets that companies are making when they hire a senior executive.

So they still need to run through the process, references, case studies, in-person meetings, like however many interviews.

And so it's being used throughout the process.

And now RBC and BMO are just handing it over for cash.

I mean, they've agreed to sell Moneris to a U.S.-based private equity firm called Francisco Partners.

Which is a huge move.

It is.

So basically, a domestic bank IT budget simply cannot keep up with a specialized global tech firm.

Not even close.

I mean, look at who Francisco Partners is bringing in to sit on the monolith board.

Who is it?

Just like Airtable, you, they only got one offer.

When you sell for a two-point-something X, you know for sure there was, there was no other offer, because anyone can pay 2.4 X or 2.5 X. It's not much more for Salesforce or Thoma Bravo, uh, or Francisco Partners outbid.

So you have two, and, like, I almost wanna move on, because I can tell you personally, I've g- I've ended the game for me of duck, duck, goose.

I'm not running around the chairs anymore.

It becomes interesting, I think, how we can talk about the role of AI there.

You are now operating in a company recently purchased by Francisco Partners, right? Correct.

In a PE-backed business.

What's the role of services in that environment? Has it evolved? Has it changed, maybe, to what it was in the past?

We've got the span of customers across all the different segments and all of that.

But I think what's happened with PE coming back in is that laser focus.

And particularly with Francisco Partners, they've got a team of operators who span across the different C-suites expertise.

So I'm working with a former CEO who's now on their operator team, and he works with me and my boss, Sam Johnson, our CEO, sorry, CCO.

Right.

So two major private equity players, Francisco Partners and KKR, are stepping in to buy minority stakes in Team System.

Francisco Partners is taking 10 percent and KKR, alongside some other investors, is taking a further 5 percent.

And this is not a small transaction.

No, not at all.

Exactly.

Hellman and Friedman is executing what is known in the financial industry as a private IPO.

So they are selling a 15% minority stake to Francisco Partners and KKR, which allows them to return some cash to their original investors.

Back to dealmaking.

Private equity firms, Francisco Partners and KKR, have agreed to buy minority stakes in Team System, an Italian business software company that has leaned heavily into AI features for its enterprise customers, according to a Reuters exclusive.

The deal could value Team System at as much as 10 billion euros.

The transaction would let existing owner Hellman & Friedman bring in new capital while retaining a significant position in the company, a structure increasingly common among private equity firms looking to hold on to their best-performing assets longer.

So I think the details of this are maybe a little less important.

We've got Francisco Partners kind of buying a majority stake in Command Alcon.

Command Alcon is essentially the technology used for dispatch, ticketing, logistics, and QC for concrete, asphalts, and aggregates.

I think the question to the group is, Is this just like an allocation kind of play for a PE firm? Or is this hinting at a trend which increasingly we're seeing, which is other sectors attempting to get upside exposure to construction? We talk a lot about M&A activities in our industry, mainly in the tech category, but now we're seeing it at kind of all layers of our industry.

And so you're like, they couldn't be farther from like, and again, different growth trajectories, private versus public.

But like at some point, like you have to wonder if these start to come together and like by taking a private, a company that's doing 275 at two X revenue and are these VCs or private equity folks? I think Francisco Partners did this one.

Like, what's their, they're like, man, if we can just get this from 2.4X to 5X, not 100X or 50, like, yeah, great deal for that, right? Yeah, I mean,

when you talk about this, I just immediately go to the craziest version of this, which is the private and public market stance that Elon's doing right now.