Clearswift, the Berkshire-headquartered (but very much international in scope) email and web security products firm, has new owners, in the guise of London-based private equity player, Lyceum Capital. Lyceum acquired majority control of Clearswift from a group of VCs including Amadeus, DFJ Esprit and Kennet, for some £25-30m. The VCs had been invested in Clearswift since 2002, when the company acquired Content Technologies (MIMEsweeper) from the late, great Baltimore Technologies (remember them?) for some £21m. Lyceum has installed former Iris CEO, Martin Leuw (see Martin Leuw resigns as CEO at Iris), as Clearswift’s chairman.
Clearswift turned over £16m in the year to 31st March 2011, a fraction down on the prior year. Less than 40% of its revenues derive from the UK. Despite professing a recent return to profit (see Clearswift back to black), its company accounts still show a near-£2m net loss, in what appears to be mostly attributable to intercompany bad debts in Australia and Japan. One imagines this has now been 'sorted'!
Lyceum has been rather active in our sector of late, including its £30m acquisition of managed IT services firm, Adapt, and a £50m buy-out of mid-market ERP software firm, Access Technology Group (see Lyceum gets access to Access). Lyceum has deep pockets, expecting to invest another £300m in the UK over the next 2-3 years. In the current climate I feel there should be no shortage of candidates!
I have just spoken to Martin Leuw, and not surprisingly he is very excited about Clearswift’s prospects, particularly having a high level of subscription revenues in a mission-critical, growth market. This is Leuw’s first appointment (and investment) since leaving Iris – and it is unlikely to be his last!