Ridgecrest Advisors’ Client Perficient Acquires JCB Partners
~ Premier IBM Partners Join Forces; Deal Expected to be Immediately Accretive ~
St. Louis – July 1, 2011 –Ridgecrest Advisors announced today that its client, Perficient, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRFT), a leading information technology consulting firm serving Global 2000 and other large enterprise customers throughout North America, has acquired JCB Partners (“JCB”), a $15 million annual revenue business and technology consulting firm focused on enterprise performance management, analytics and business intelligence solutions, primarily leveraging the IBM Cognos suite of software products. The transaction will increase Perficient’s current annualized revenues to approximately $275 million. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to earnings per share immediately.
“A four-time winner of IBM’s Cognos Partner of the Year Award, JCB is a recognized enterprise performance management consulting leader,” said Jeffrey Davis, Perficient’s chief executive officer and president. “They bring a proven track record and solid client roster to Perficient while helping us expand our presence in key markets.”
“The addition of JCB further strengthens Perficient’s position as one of the leading business intelligence and enterprise performance management consulting firms in the country,” said Kathy Henely, Perficient’s chief operating officer. “It increases our access to CFO suites, is a great complement to our business consulting offerings and presents a strong opportunity for pull-through of additional development, implementation and integration services.”
The acquisition of JCB also:
- Increases Perficient’s market presence in the Denver, Chicago and Northern and Southern California markets;
- Adds 70 consulting, technology, sales and support professionals; and
- Adds client relationships with enterprise customers including Abbott, Aon, Arthur Gallagher, BCBS Association, Best Buy, Carter’s, Crocs, Del Monte Foods, DirecTV, GE, Genentech, Kaiser Permanente Quiznos, Ruth’s Chris, Sony and many others.
JCB partners J-P Contreras and Bob Hardin will join Perficient in leadership roles within the IBM EPM national business unit, reporting directly to John Jenkins, vice-president of Perficient’s IBM business group.
“Perficient is widely regarded as one of the finest IBM Premier business partners in the country,” said J-P Contreras. “We’ve admired their work, growth and reputation for many years and this transaction accelerates our collective opportunity to become the leading IBM Business Analytics consulting firm in the country.”
The consideration paid in the transaction is approximately $18.0 million and includes $12.6 million in cash and approximately $5.4 million worth of Perficient common stock (based on the average closing price of Perficient’s common stock on the NASDAQ Global Select Market for the thirty trading days immediately preceding the acquisition close per the terms of the acquisition agreement). The purchase price consideration is subject to working capital adjustments. The consideration included the issuance by Perficient of an aggregate of 97,755 shares of Perficient restricted stock to former JCB employees J-P Contreras, Bob Hardin, Erik Duffield, Mark Hatting and Dominic Sagar. The grants vest in 20% increments annually over a 5-year period. If the recipient is not employed by Perficient for any reason during the 5-year period, then any unvested shares will be forfeited.
Randy Grigg, Managing Partner of Ridgecrest Advisors, advised Perficient on the transaction in his capacity as a registered investment banking agent of Burch & Company, Inc. “The acquisition of JCB brings to Perficient the leading IBM Cognos consultancy and greatly strengthens Perficient’s capabilities and market presence in the highly attractive enterprise performance management space,” said Grigg.
About Perficient
Perficient is a leading information technology consulting firm serving Global 2000 and enterprise customers throughout North America. Perficient’s professionals serve clients from a network of offices in North America and three offshore locations, in Eastern Europe, India and China. Perficient helps clients use Internet-based technologies to improve productivity and competitiveness, strengthen relationships with customers, suppliers and partners and reduce information technology costs. Perficient, traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market(SM), is a member of the Russell 2000® index and the S&P SmallCap 600 index. Perficient is an award-winning “Premier Level” IBM business partner, a TeamTIBCO partner, a Microsoft National Systems Integrator and Gold Certified Partner, a Documentum Select Services Team Partner and an Oracle Certified Partner. For more information, please visit www.perficient.com.
About JCB Partners, LLC
JCB Partners is a performance management consulting firm driven to create meaningful, measurable, and sustainable improvement to business through the re-engineering of business processes. By combining expertise in technology and business strategy, JCB Partners provides its clients the knowledge and tools needed to align company goals with management action across all areas of operation. Built around a philosophy of thinking strategically, starting small and accelerating systematically, JCB offers a proven history of accountability and results, having engaged in over 500 successful client relationships since its founding in 2001.
About Ridgecrest Advisors
Ridgecrest Advisors is an investment banking and business consulting firm dedicated to helping technology consulting firms dramatically increase enterprise value. Ridgecrest Advisors helps clients in four core areas:
1. Buy-side M&A advisory: We help technology consulting clients increase enterprise value by successfully executing transactions which fortify, extend or transform their businesses. We have run three of the most active acquisition programs in the sector over the last 15 years and bring deep insight into full lifecycle M&A efforts.
2. Sell-side M&A advisory: We help technology consulting clients achieve premium valuations with attractive deal structures through a process that emphasizes speed and risk mitigation. Our deep industry expertise, expansive relationships with the buyer community and unmatched understanding of the perspectives of acquiring firms provide a unique ability to execute optimal transactions.
3. Business consulting: Our Enterprise Value Optimization program helps technology consulting clients improve relative performance visibility, increase profit margins and reduce business risk. With our extensive experience from evaluating hundreds of consultancies while running acquisition programs, we bring unique insight into key performance indicator benchmarks and best practices of highly profitable firms.
4. Private placements: Our ability to successfully raise capital allows our technology consulting clients to build value through funded strategic investment and reduce personal financial risk by realizing partial liquidity on their ownership positions. We have extensive relationships with private equity and debt financing providers who have experience and/or interest in the technology consulting sector.
All services involving securities are offered through Burch & Company, Inc., member FINRA/SiPC; 4151 North Mulberry Drive, Suite 235; Kansas City, MO 64116; 816.842.4660. Burch and Ridgecrest are not affiliated entities.
