Global investment firm KKR has acquired Ness Digital Engineering, a global digital transformation company with Salesforce cloud and Snowflake data expertise. The seller was The Rohatyn Group.
Financial terms of the deal were not officially disclosed, but the price tag was apparently $500 million or so, according to The Economic Times. That's far lower than an $800 million asking price that the seller originally had in mind, according to Bloomberg.
This is technology M&A deal number 928 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2022.
About the Buyer and Seller
KKR, founded in 1976, is based in New York, New York. The company has 3,966 employees listed on LinkedIn. KKR’s areas of expertise include private equity, asset management, capital markets, credit, real estate, infrastructure, energy real assets and special situations.
Ness, founded in 1998, is based in Teaneck, New Jersey. The company has 5,458 employees listed on LinkedIn. Ness’ areas of expertise include software product engineering, systems integration, custom application development, software engineering services, digital engineering services, digital design, user experience engineering, user experience design, digital transformation, software product development, Salesforce.com, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), cloud, data & analytics, intelligent engineering, cloud engineering, digital solutions, DevOps and digital advisory.
KKR Acquires Ness Digital Engineering: Executive Insight
Gaurav Trehan, partner and CEO of KKR India, said,
“Digital transformation and adoption is a critical strategy for businesses of all sizes worldwide. Against this backdrop, KKR believes that Ness is well-positioned for growth, supported by its exceptional, experience-led product engineering heritage. KKR is pleased to invest in Ness’ capabilities and looks forward to working alongside its talented team to further scale Ness’ digital-first platform, achieve its global ambitions, and better enable its customers to compete in the digital economy.”
Ranjit Tinaikar, CEO of Ness, said,
“We are thrilled to welcome an investor of KKR’s caliber in Ness. We believe this transaction will help us turbocharge our growth plans and further strengthen our competitive market position. We look forward to leveraging KKR’s global platform and strong investment and operational expertise to deliver more innovative solutions to help our customers keep up with the pace of digitalization required by the accelerated online economy. I want to thank TRG for their consistent stewardship throughout the years. They have been great strategic partners to the management team and helped us to execute our growth strategy.”
The acquisition of Ness expands KKR’s global portfolio of technology investments, which currently includes Cloudera, a U.S. data management software company, Yayoi, a Japanese software developer, distributor and support service provider, Probe CX, an Australian customer experience and business process outsourcing solutions provider, MYOB, an Australian online business management company and Jio, a digital services platform in India, the companies said.
M&A Activity: Salesforce and Snowflake
Ness itself is not a stranger to M&A, having previously acquired such firms as Niyuj in January 2022 and Risk Focus in 2021.
M&A activity involving Salesforce and Snowflake partners remains strong. You can see all the Salesforce ecosystem M&A activity ChannelE2E tracks here, and all the Snowflake M&A activity here.
