A consortium led by London-headquartered Apax Partners and JMI Equity is to acquire Paradigm, the independent upstream software house, from Fox Paine & Co. for approximately $1 billion in an all-cash transaction. Paradigm’s 700 customers use its software to process and interpret seismic and well log data acquired during oil and gas exploration. The company has a strong market presence in complex environments such as the Gulf of Mexico.
Apax partner Jason Wright said, ‘We believe that the intersection between energy and software is an exciting area for investment and is an opportunity we have been monitoring for some time.’ Apax’ previous investments include Sophos and Autonomy. JMI Equity was an investor in Seismic Micro-Technology.
Paradigm was acquired by Fox Paine in 2002 for $100 million. At the time, this represented a 38% premium on the stock price (Oil IT Journal May 2002). In 2007, an attempted initial public offering (Oil IT Journal November 2007) came unstuck when ‘improper payments’ to foreign intermediaries were disclosed. More from Paradigm, Apax and JMI.
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