Clarivate Analytics announces $4.2bn merger
IP services provider Clarivate Analytics is to merge with Churchill Capital Corp, a public investment company, in a deal that values the combined company at $4.2 billion.
In a statement yesterday, January 14, the companies said the new business will be called Clarivate and be publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Clarivate Analytics owns divisions including Cortellis, a life sciences data analytics tool, and Derwent World Patents Index, a patent database. It also owns CompuMark, a trademark research solution, and online brand protection company MarkMonitor.
Jerre Stead, Churchill’s CEO, will serve as executive chairman of the new company, while Clarivate Analytics’ existing management team will continue to lead the business.
Clarivate Analytics CEO Jay Nadler said the agreement represented an exciting milestone “that will open a wide range of future growth opportunities for the business and allow us to further invest in the brightest minds, game changing data science, and robust technologies”.
Stead alluded to the attractiveness of Clarivate Analytics, saying the company has a “superior set of data assets, valuable customer relationships and extraordinary people”.
Clarivate Analytics itself was formed in October 2016 when Thomson Reuters sold its Intellectual Property & Science business to Onex Corporation and Baring Private Equity Asia (BPEA).
According to the statement announcing the latest deal, Onex, BPEA and Clarivate Analytics management are retaining 100% of their equity. This converts to 73.8% ownership of the outstanding shares of the combined company at closing, “assuming no redemptions by Churchill’s public stockholders”.
“The remaining outstanding shares of the combined company will be held by the current stockholders and founders of Churchill. Onex will continue to be the majority owner,” the statement added.
The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2019, assuming it is approved by Churchill stockholders. The boards of both companies have already approved the deal.
This latest agreement comes three months after Clarivate Analytics sold its IP management arm to rival services provider CPA Global. That deal followed CPA’s decision to buy market insight tool Filing Analytics and patent alert tool Citation Eagle several months before.
According to yesterday’s statement, “the transaction implies an initial enterprise value of approximately $4.2 billion with a multiple of approximately 12.5x Clarivate’s estimated 2019 standalone adjusted EBITDA before synergies at the time of close”.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories like this sent straight to your inbox.
Today's top stories:
EU court dismisses TM appeal based on missed deadline
Oakley accuses safety glasses maker of design patent infringement
Mortgage lender wins Fed Circuit appeal against TTAB decision
