CS Group in £500m merger with IRIS

Fundraising | Becky Slack | 1 Jul 2007

Computer Software Group, which supplies CARE and Integra fundraising databases, has joined with IRIS Software Group following a £500m acquisition that was majority funded by Hellman and Friedman (H&F), a global private equity firm.

The two companies will now operate under the IRIS Software Group name. The merger brings together software contracts for 15,000 accountancy firms, 3,970 legal bodies and 295 notfor- profit organisations.

The large concentration of clients in the accountancy and legal sectors has led some to question the new company's commitment to charities. However, Martin Leuw, chief executive of IRIS who will become group chief executive, told PF it is not his intention to neglect any areas of business. "It's business as usual," he said. "We are committed to the NFP sector. The combination of both businesses creates £100m of turnover, providing access to significant R&D budget."

Meanwhile, there has been speculation in the trade press that the merger signifies the first in a series of tactics to create a global non-profit software provider.

Links have been made between this acquisition and Blackbaud, of which H&F was said to own 68 per cent. An article published in June conjectured that the private equity firm had purchased a "controlling interest in Blackbaud" with a view to merging it with CS Group, which would enable Blackbaud to compete more effectively in America. H&F strongly denied this, saying it exited its investment in Blackbaud in February 2006. "Hellman & Friedman's experience in the NFP market means we were able to spot the potential in CS Group's offering. We look forward to working with them to realise dynamic growth for the business in the same way as we did with Blackbaud through our expertise in the sector. As we no longer have an investment in Blackbaud there are no plans for a merger of the two businesses," said Stephen Duckett, managing director of H&F.

Who's Who: Becky Slack

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.