Austin Ventures-backed Silverback Enterprise Group, which acquires and builds software businesses, has acquired EPM Live, a provider of cloud-based project portfolio and work management software built on the Microsoft SharePoint platform.
EPM Live will become part of Silverback’s PowerSteering Software business.
Adding EPM Live’s more than 270 active enterprise clients and over 100,000 users strengthens PowerSteering’s position as a vendor of cloud project and portfolio management (PPM) software. The combined organisation will have over 800 active enterprise clients and more than a quarter of a million users in 50 countries worldwide, making it the largest pure-play cloud provider in the multi-billion dollar PPM software industry.
"The PPM market is growing faster than the enterprise software industry as a whole, and cloud is the fastest growing segment of that market," says Jack McDonald, chairman and chief executive officer of Silverback Enterprise Group and PowerSteering Software. "The acquisition of EPM Live increases the scale and resources of the PowerSteering business so we can capitalize on this tremendous growth opportunity. At the same time, it gives our clients access to a broader range of PPM products."
"EPM Live is a strong complementary fit with PowerSteering’s existing products," says Ludwig Melik, president of PowerSteering Software. "With the increasing popularity and adoption of SharePoint as an internal collaboration tool, more and more organisations are looking to leverage that investment and extend it to PPM on the SharePoint platform. EPM Live is the clear leader in meeting this growing need, and will continue to be so as part of PowerSteering."
PowerSteering will continue to invest in the development and support of the EPM Live product lines, and all existing Service Level Agreements and support arrangements will remain unchanged.
The EPM Live staff and chief executive Joe Larscheid will join the PowerSteering team, and Larscheid will continue to oversee the EPM Live product line.
"It was important to us to team up with a company that shared our focus as a ‘best of breed’ cloud PPM provider, our vision to advance work management in the market, and most critically, our commitment to investing in EPM Live’s products and customers," says Larscheid. "Joining PowerSteering Software is a winning outcome for our clients and employees alike."
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. EPM Live is Silverback’s fourth acquisition in the past 15 months. Silverback acquired Visionael in September 2011 and Tenrox and PowerSteering Software in February 2012.
