Sage has announced it has agreed to fully acquire Brightpearl, a cloud-native multichannel retail management system for retailers and wholesalers.
The move comes just a year after Sage purchased a 17% minority stake in the Bristol-based business. Now, the financial technology provider has swooped to buy the rest in a deal worth £225 million, funded from its existing cash and available liquidity.
Sage said the acquisition will accelerate its strategy for growth, including scaling its Sage Intacct offering, broaden the value proposition for mid-sized businesses, as well as expand its digital network.
“Sage’s purpose is to knock down barriers so everyone can thrive. Together, Sage and Brightpearl will remove the barriers that hold back retailers and wholesalers, streamlining their systems and enabling them to focus on growth,” commented Steve Hare, Sage CEO.
“I’m delighted to welcome Brightpearl, its management team and colleagues to Sage, and look forward to executing on our strategic priorities together and delivering accelerated growth.”
Based in Bristol, UK, and Austin, Texas, Brightpearl provides a SaaS-based retail operating system (ROS), which enables real-time business insights and helps customers automate workflows.
Sage said the ROS will complement its own Intacct solution to create a more powerful offering for retailers and wholesalers, integrating features such as financial management, inventory planning, sales order management, purchasing and supplier management, CRM, fulfilment, warehousing, as well as logistics management.
For the year ending December 2021, Brightpearl is expected to generate revenues of £20m ($27m), representing growth of around 50% to the previous year, with operating profit around the breakeven level, the firm said.
The transaction is subject to regulatory clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act in the US and is expected to close in January 2022.
“We are thrilled to be joining Sage. Bringing our two teams together will combine the retail strength of Brightpearl and the scale, brand and financial expertise of Sage, enabling us to offer customers the most innovative financial and retail operating solutions so they can grow fearlessly, save time and deliver outstanding experiences,” said Derek O’Carroll,CEO of Brightpearl.
