Monaghan-based Datacare Software Group has been sold to Australian company Computershare for €12 million cash. The deal will net its 62-year-old founder John Kelly €3 million.
Datacare's 63 staff, who own 10 per cent of the company between them, will share in a €1.2 million windfall as a result of the sale, giving them an average payout of €19,000.
Fifty of Datacare's employees are based in Monaghan, with the balance operating out of Dublin, London, New York and Toronto.
Other shareholders to benefit from the deal are Enterprise Equity, Penta Capital and Enterprise Ireland.
The company is believed to have raised about €5 million in funding over the years. Staff were informed about the terms of the deal yesterday. The sale was handled by Goodbody Corporate Finance.
The company had sales in 2006 of €5.4 million, roughly the same as its outgoings that year. Its turnover is forecast to rise to about €7 million this year with profits projected at €2 million.
Mr Kelly founded Datacare in 1983. Three years later, it launched its first corporate records management software for the Irish market. It has since grown to provide company secretarial software solutions to large corporations, law firms and accountancy practices.
Its 700 "blue-chip" customers include Cadbury, Deloitte, PricewatershouseCoopers, Grant Thornton and BNP Paribas.
Computershare is a global player in share registration, employee equity plans and other specialised financial and communication services.
It was set up in Melbourne in 1978 to provide specialist computer bureau services to Australian share registrars and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1994. It employs 10,000 staff.
The company has an office in the Sandyford Industrial Estate, providing share registry services to a large number of Irish publicly-quoted groups.
In a statement released yesterday, Computershare said the deal would "help us drive consolidation in the US market and position Computershare as the global leader in the industry".
"With increased focus on corporate governance all over the world, Computershare aims to offer its clients access to the best in data management solutions. Our acquisition of Datacare makes this possible," the company added.
