Roper Technologies, a lesser-known company that creates engineering products for niche markets, this morning announced that it acquired Syntellis Performance Solutions, a provider of enterprise performance management software, for $1.25 billion.
The transaction includes a $135 million tax benefit, and will result in Syntellis’ performance management and data solutions being combined with Roper’s healthcare finance planning and decision support business, according to Roper president and CEO Neil Hunn.
“The Syntellis transaction is another great example of Roper’s disciplined and process-driven acquisition approach,” Hunn said in a statement. “Syntellis is a fantastic business that meets all of our acquisition criteria, including niche market leadership, mission critical solutions, a high recurring revenue mix, strong customer retention, negative working capital and excellent cash conversion.”
While not necessarily a household name, Syntellis is a spin-off of Kaufman Hall, the Chicago-based healthcare management consultancy. Syntellis became an independent company in 2020 with investment support from private equity firms Thoma Bravo and Madison Dearborn Partners.
Over the past three years, the firms worked with Syntellis to grow the company’s products and platforms business, most recently directing its acquisition of healthcare data analytics firm Stratasan. Syntellis formed a strategic alliance with Kaufman to serve as its enterprise performance management and data analytics provider of choice, and pursued customers not only in healthcare but in higher education and the finance industry.
Those specific customer segments aside, enterprise performance management is a profitable sector. According to a report from Allied Market Research, the global market for enterprise management software could be worth as much as $12.56 billion in 2025, up from $4.73 billion in 2016.
A separate report from IDC found that in 2022, the enterprise performance management applications market grew 8.7%, with public cloud deployments growing by 26.5%. One of the coauthors, senior research analyst Roy Huo, posited that the increased demand for capabilities like “predictive modeling, scenario planning, predictive forecasting, integrated planning, and external intelligence” played a pivotal role.
In 2020, Syntellis claimed to have over 2,800 customers, with around 450,000 users relying on its data solutions.
“Thoma Bravo and Madison Dearborn Partners’ support and collaboration have propelled our growth, helped advance our product roadmap and enabled us to better serve our valued clients,” Syntellis CEO Flint Brenton said in a canned statement. “Today’s announcement is a testament to the great work from the entire Syntellis team and marks an exciting new chapter for the company. As part of Roper, we will further our mission to empower our clients to optimize performance through our industry-specific, tailored solutions.”
Roper has an interesting history, dating back to 1890 primarily as a manufacturer of home appliances, pumps and other industrial products. It began broadening its business into software in the early ’90s, after launching a corporate acquisition program supported by an IPO.
As of 2017, Roper — which has several main business lines, including core industrial tech, radio frequency tech, scientific and industrial imaging and energy systems and controls — had annual revenues of more than $1.23 billion.
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