SunGard

SunGard Data Systems

Type	Private
Industry	Information Technology
Founded	1983
Headquarters	Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA
Key people	Russ Fradin (CEO)
Products	Computer software Support services
Revenue	$4.991 billion (2011)
Owner	Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, TPG Capital and Providence Equity Partners
Number of employees	13,000 (2014)
Website	sungard.com

SunGard is an American multinational company based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, which provides software and services to education, financial services, and public sector organizations. It was formed in 1983, as a spin-off of the computer services division of Sun Oil Company. The name of the company originally was an acronym which stood for Sun Guaranteed Access to Recovered Data, a reference to the disaster recovery business it helped pioneer. SunGard is ranked at 480th in the U.S. Fortune 500 list in the year 2012.^[1]

In August 2005 the company was acquired by seven private equity firms and de-listed from the NYSE.^[2] SunGard was one of the title sponsors of the Tinkoff-Saxo pro cycling team until the end of 2011.^[3]

Business

SunGard provides software and processing for financial services, K-12 and Higher Education, and the public sector. It also provided continuity-assurance and production data center hosting services, now part of SunGard AS.^[4] SunGard has offices in many parts of the world outside of the United States including Paris, South Africa, Tunis, Stockholm, and the United Kingdom.

Acquisitions

SunGard has historically grown by acquisition. Past mergers include Performance Pathways, Vericenter, InFlow, Strohl Systems, Comdisco Continuity Services, and Guardian iT PLC on the availability side, Systems & Computer Technology Corp. (SCT) on the higher education side, and Kiodex. Inc.,^[5] GL Trade, Oshap (Mint, Decalog), TRAX, Carnot AG, Front Capital Systems (Front Arena), Martini, Monis, APT, Dyatron, Reech, VPM, Phase 3 Systems, Infinity, Microhedge, Reconciliation, Automated Securities Clearance India, Opus Renaissance Software Inc., and National Computer Systems Financial Systems Division on the (primarily financial) software and processing side. SunGard has completed more than 150 acquisitions over the past 20 years.

Among the largest acquisitions were:

• In 1997, SunGard Data Systems acquired Infinity Financial Technology, a designer of trading and risk-management software, for about US$390 million, where $313 million were paid in stock and $77 million went in cash.^[6] Infinity Financial Technology reported revenues of about $60 million in the fiscal year 1996.

• in 1999, SunGard acquired Israel's Oshap Technologies (Nasdaq:OSHSF) for $210M in stock, giving SunGard a foothold in both the middleware (via Oshap's subsidiary Mint Communications) and front-office portfolio management systems markets (via Oshap's subsidiary Decalog).^[7]

• In 2001, SunGard acquired Comdisco Inc.’s computer disaster-recovery business after a U.S. appeals court rebuffed a request by the Justice Department to halt the $825 million transaction.^[8]

• In 2004, SunGard acquired Systems & Computer Technology Corp. (SCT) for $590 million in cash.^[9]

• In 2008, SunGard acquired GL Trade, a Paris-based financial services firm for nearly US$1 billion; in a first tranche a 65% stake in GL Trade was acquired for $625 million, including effect of outstanding stock options.^[10] The deal encompasses the NYSE Euronext's 40% stake in GL Trade, however 25,4% were in the hand of the founders and 36,6% of the shares were free float. The deal was considered to be financially hazardous, given the mere fact that GL Trade reported revenues of €203 million and an EBITDA of €26 million (fiscal year 2007).

• In 2008, SunGard acquired Strohl Systems, an IT company, direct competitor of SunGard in availability and recovery planning. Strohl Systems became software division of SunGard Availability Services, located in King Of Prussia, PA

De-Merger Activities

In March 2014 SunGard completed the split-off of its Availability Services business, forming the independent company SunGard AS.^[11] Andy Stern continues to lead the SunGard AS business. ^[4]

In August 2011 Datatel and SunGard's Higher Education group announced the definitive agreement to combine businesses and operate as one company. Datatel’s current chief executive officer, John Speer, will be the chief executive officer of the combined business. Ron Lang, the CEO of SunGard Higher Education, will continue to play an active role in the combined business as vice chairman of the board of directors.

Affiliates of private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC will acquire the SunGard Higher Education businesses from SunGard Data Systems Inc. for an aggregate cash purchase price of US$1.775 billion and combine the acquired businesses. The combined company will operate under a new name, Ellucian, as announced at the 2012 annual users' conference.

On 7 December Hellman & Friedman, Datatel and SunGard announced that the proposed combination of Datatel and SunGard Higher Education had cleared Department of Justice review and the companies are preparing to close the transaction in the first quarter of 2012.^[12] In March 2012, the combination was announced, with the new company being called Ellucian.^[13]

SunGard's total debt of US$8.08 billion will be alleviated by selling the Higher Education business line, however a projected annual revenue shortage of $580 million can be assumed, resulting in a total revenue projection for the fiscal 2011 of $4.7 billion, suggesting a negative revenue trend.^[14]

In December 2010, The Capita Group Plc acquired SunGard Public Sector Holdings Ltd (A UK Public Sector business) for £86 million.^[15] The new business was known as Capita Secure Information Systems; it has now been renamed Capita Secure Managed Services.^[16]

Leveraged Buyout 2005

Formerly listed on the NYSE (ticker symbol SDS) on August 11, 2005 the company was acquired by a consortium of seven private equity investment firms in a transaction valued at $11.3 billion. The partners in the acquisition were Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Providence Equity Partners, and TPG Capital.^[17]

References

External links

• Official website
• SunGard K-12 Education
• SunGard Financial Systems
• SunGard Availability Services
• SunGard Public Sector