New telecoms company launched

A private equity consortium led by Atlantic Bridge Ventures has purchased LogicaCMG's telecoms products business, which processes over half of the world's text and multimedia messages. The seller was paid £265 million in cash on completion.

The business has been renamed Acision, and will continue to be led by CEO Chris McDermott and the existing management team.

In addition to Atlantic Bridge, the buying consortium includes US holding company Access Industries, which takes a 50 per cent stake in the consideration, and Larry Quinn, the former CEO of Logica Mobile Networks.

Brian Long, managing partner at Atlantic Bridge, says: ‘This investment marks a significant step for Atlantic Bridge following our launch in 2005, and represents the foundation of our investment strategy of targeting businesses operating in high-growth sectors within our core areas of industry expertise.’

The acquired business has been developing technologies in the telecoms sector since 1964. It was an early player in SMS technology and also installed the first automated ticketing system on the London Underground in 1987.

Marc Barber

Marc was editor of GrowthBusiness from 2006 to 2010. He specialised in writing about entrepreneurs, private equity and venture capital, mid-market M&A, small caps and high-growth businesses. More by Marc Barber