Vista Equity Partners, the huge private equity firm that just bought St. Paul-based GovDelivery for $153 million, plans to merge GovDelivery with a Denver-based company Vista owns that also serves governments with a different package of digital-communication services.
GovDelivery CEO Scott Burns, a founder of the 225-employee firm in 2001, said it won't be known until next year if there will be a consolidated headquarters for the firm or if he or somebody else will run it.
GovDelivery's merger partner is Denver-based Granicus. It provides services for 1,200 government organizations, including live webcasting of public meetings and video archives, agenda and legislative-management software and online-feedback platforms for citizens.
GovDeliver projects revenue of $40 million-plus this year. Granicus is smaller.
"It's good news for St. Paul," Burns said. "Vista is committed to grow across the offices."
Burns, who made several small acquisitions in recent years, said he was interested in an earlier marriage with Granicus. However, his former corporate parent, Actua Corp., which is much smaller than Vista Equity, was wary of the price.
Regardless, Burns said he expected the merger, under deep-pockets Vista Equity, to benefit both growing companies, regardless of the leadership-and-headquarters decisions to come. Vista Equity, with $26 billion invested, is one of the world's bigger owners of technology companies.
The merger of GovDelivery and Granicus will create a combined entity that will serve more than 3,000 public customers at the local, state and federal levels. There are an unspecified number of customers served by both companies.
The merger partners say they will be the "the largest provider of 'cloud solutions' to government in North America and the United Kingdom."
The objective is to integrate the product offering, increase investment and grow the business.
GovDelivery connects 1,800-plus organizations with more than 120 million constituents digitally with government communications to promote use of services, public awareness and increase citizen engagement. Granicus works with 1,200 government bodies and agencies.
The combined company will employ 375 workers and maintain offices in Denver, St. Paul, Washington and the UK.
