Publishing software business Quark has been bought out by private equity investment firm Platinum Equity for an undisclosed amount.
Publishing software business Quark has been bought out by private equity investment firm Platinum Equity for an undisclosed amount.
Tim Gill, an American computer software entrepreneur, founded US-based Quark in 1981 with a $2,000 loan from his parents. The first version of Quark (QuarkXPress) was released in 1987 on the Apple Macintosh.
In 2000 Tim Gill sold Quark to the Ebrahimi family, who in turn disposed of its stake in 2005 and handed over control of the company to Los Angeles-based Platinum Equity.
The software is used by professionals to produce flyers, magazines and newspapers, and operates from offices around the world including Denver and London.
Brian Wall, partner at Platinum Equity, says: ‘Quark is a legendary brand that helped create the desktop publishing market and is now helping organisations transform how they publish content both to print and digital media.
‘We believe that with their expertise and innovative software, Quark has the potential to revolutionise publishing again.’
In 1998 Quark attempted a hostile buyout of software company Adobe, which led to a rival programme (Adobe InDesign) being launched in 1999.
The transition comes at an ‘exciting time’ for its company and customers, says president and chief executive officer at Quark, Raymond Schiavone.
Schiavone adds: ‘Platinum Equity is well positioned to help us continue to execute our dynamic publishing vision through their market reach, merger and acquisition experience, and operational support. This is the natural next step for Quark’s evolution.’
According to a statement, Platinum Equity has already started a process of transitioning Quark to new ownership.
Schiavone says: ‘Our interest is to have financial backers that can help us focus on our core markets, and more specifically, to create an acquisition strategy that’s focused on helping us expand the breadth and depth of our product capabilities and our geographic coverage.’
Platinum Equity specialises in mergers, acquisitions and operations of companies that provide ‘mission-critical’ products and services in the information technology, telecoms and logistics markets. The firm has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Boston and London and has completed a reported 115 acquisitions.
