The seller of cloud-based software for public agencies said that it has signed a “definitive agreement” to be acquired and taken private by California-based investment firm GI Partners.
The all-cash transaction will pay out $6.30 for each share of GTY common stock. The purchase price comes to a 123 percent premium over the closing share price on April 28, the company said. The deal values the company at $363 million, according to a research note from D.A. Davidson.
Boston-based GTY, founded in late 2016, operates six business units and sells technology to state and local governments, schools and health-care organizations. With tools for procurement, grants, budgeting, payment and permitting, GTY’s products include CityBase, eCivis, OpenCounter, Questica and Sherpa.
“GI Partners has an excellent track record of supporting and adding value to leading software companies, and we are delighted to bring on a partner of GI Partners’ caliber,” said TJ Parass, CEO of GTY, in a statement. “This transaction will provide immediate and substantial value to GTY shareholders. The company will have greater flexibility to focus on executing our strategy, and we are excited to begin our long-term partnership with GI Partners.”
GI Partners launched in 2001 and says it has raised more than $32 billion in capital for investments in such areas as real estate, data and IT infrastructure, health care, services and software.
“We at GI believe GTY has developed outstanding products across its segments and a well-earned reputation for quality and innovation. We are impressed by the team’s commitment to solve some of governments’ most pressing problems,” said Travis Pearson, managing director and co-head of private equity at GI Partners, in that same statement.
Back in late 2018, GTY spent $497 million to buy six government technology companies at once.
Those six companies had a combined customer base of about 1,500 companies or organizations — mostly city and county users with some utilities and small state agencies.
One of those firms was Bonfire, which made the news in late 2021 when it introduced a free portal allowing government workers to search thousands of requests for proposals — and other similar documents — from other agencies.
GTY’s board of directors unanimously approved the transaction.
This deal to take GTY private comes just more than a year after Tyler Technologies announced its ground-breaking deal to buy NIC for $2.3 billion — another move taking a gov tech company off the stock market.
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