Siris Capital makes half a billion bucks in 10 months with Intralinks sale

Private equity firm Siris Capital is selling Enterprise collaboration software vendor Intralinks for $1.5 billion, having bought it for a billion less than a year ago.

It’s starting to look like Siris Capital is pretty good at this capitalism business. In November 2017 Siris agreed to buy Intralinks from crisis-hit mobile software and services company Synchronoss for $1 billion. Synchronoss itself, which also accepted a further strategic investment from Siris, had only bought Intralinks less than a year previously.

Ten months of patient incubation later, with Intralinks now positioned as ‘a leading financial technology provider for the global banking, deal making and capital markets communities’, financial software company SS&C Technologies has decided it’s now worth 1.5 billion. It will pay Siris a bil in cash and half a bil in SS&C stock.

“Intralinks brings a wealth of expertise and a leadership position in the data sharing and collaboration technology space,” said Bill Stone, CEO of SS&C. “Intralinks and SS&C share many of the industry’s largest customers and together we are well-positioned to meet the needs of major banks, alternative funds and other corporations seeking to automate document-centric, collaborative workflows.”

“I have been privileged to lead Intralinks through an exciting period in which we refocused the business on delivering innovative technology to the financial services sector,” said Leif O’Leary, CEO of Intralinks. “Intralinks’ acquisition by SS&C is a testament to the progress we have made toward our strategic objectives, and we are excited to deliver even more value to our customers as a combined business.”

“My colleagues at Siris and I recognize the tremendous work the Intralinks team has done to deliver on its strategic vision and generate profitable growth under our ownership,” said Frank Baker, a Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Siris Capital.  “We believe that the combination of Intralinks and SS&C will benefit customers, employees, partners and investors.”

Siris has emerged as a pretty significant player in the telecoms and tech private equity scene. Not only did it rescue Intralinks from a failed marriage and trouser half a billion bucks in less than a year for its troubles, it’s heavily involved in the resurrection of Synchronoss and also owns Mavenir and Polycom.