Verdane and Via Venture exit Dolphin Software

The exit comes five years after Verdane and Via each took a 48% stake in Dolphin through a management buyout that saw management retain 4% of the company's shares.

Following the deal, Dolphin Software will become part of the newly formed Loxysoft Group, which received a SEK 25m investment from Sweden's Inlandsinnovation.

Jakob Rybak-Andersen, partner at Via Venture, said there had been a significant amount of interest in Dolphin ahead of the trade sale to its new Swedish owners.

Verdane's 2009 acquisition was made through its Verdane Capital VI and VII funds, a SEK 1bn 2007 vintage buyout fund and SEK 1.5bn 2009 vintage direct secondaries fund respectively.

Under the GPs' stewardship, the Norwegian company expanded its operations in the Nordic markets.

Previous funding
Dolphin was bought by Verdane in August 2009 in an MBO that saw the GP acquire 96% of the company, with management retaining the remainder, according to unquote" data.

Verdane was joined by Denmark's Via Venture Partners in 2011, which took half of Verdane's stake, leaving each GP with 48%.

Company
The Norwegian company's roots lie with Norsk Data, a Norwegian computer producer founded in 1967.

Dolphin was created following the breakup of Norsk Data in the early 1990s, and provides services and products for contact centres, as well as planning products for staffing agencies.

Today, the Oslo-headquartered company employs 40 people in Norway and Sweden.

With a turnover of NOK 62m in 2013, the company's clients include Nordic telecoms giant Telenor, Orange Telecom in Switzerland, and former Goldman Sachs and Quadrangle portfolio company Get.

People
Arne Simensen is an investment manager at Verdane and worked on the deal alongside Via partner Jakob Rybak-Andersen. Haakon Smeby is the CEO of Dolphin.

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• Topics
• Nordics
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• Norway
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• Via Venture Partners
• Verdane Capital Partners