Deal Details

Certona Is Acquired by Kibo

Technology & Services

Certona sale to Kibo, a portfolio company of Vista

Summary

Certona Corporation (“Certona” or the “Company”), a company owned by Primus Capital (“Primus”) and other investors and co-founders Meyar Sheik and Geoffrey Hueter, recently announced its sale to Kibo Software, Inc. (“Kibo”), a portfolio company of Vista Equity Partners (“Vista”). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Baird served as exclusive financial advisor to Certona on this transaction.

About

Certona is the leading provider of real-time, omnichannel SaaS personalization solutions for prominent eCommerce providers. For over fourteen years, the Company has been pioneering AI-driven individualized shopping experiences and powers over 100 billion unique shopping experiences each month. Trusted by more than 500 brands and retailers in over 70 countries, Certona’s patented technology leverages machine learning and predictive analytics to deliver a fully-orchestrated experience with optimized content and messaging to increase engagement and conversions across all customer touchpoints. Certona is headquartered in San Diego, California.

Founded in 1984, Primus is a growth-oriented private equity firm focused on investing in leading healthcare, software and technology-enabled services companies. Primus is based in Cleveland, Ohio and also has offices in Atlanta, Georgia.

Kibo provides industry leading eCommerce, distributed order management and mobile point-of-sale solutions to retailers and branded manufacturers with over 800 customers fulfilling orders in 75 countries. Kibo’s cloud-based commerce suite enables customers to meet consumer demands anywhere, anytime and on any device. With offices in California and London, Kibo is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Vista is a private equity firm that exclusively invests in software, data and technology-enabled organizations led by world-class management teams. Vista has $46 billion in cumulative capital commitments. Vista’s typical transaction sizes range from $20 million to more than $500 million. As a value-added investor with a long-term perspective, Vista contributes professional expertise and multi-level support towards companies to realize their full potential. Vista has offices in Austin, Chicago, New York City, Oakland and San Francisco and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Technology & Services

Certona sale to Kibo, a portfolio company of Vista