Advent Software (ADVS), the creator of the portfolio management platform Black Diamond, is being acquired by SS&C Technologies (SSNC) for some $2.7 billion, the two firms said late Monday. The deal was announced just hours after Fidelity said it was buying eMoney Advisor.
Advent has a base of roughly 4,300 clients, such as asset managers, hedge funds, fund administrators, prime brokers, family offices and wealth management advisory firms. The San Francisco-based firm had sales of close to $400 million in 2014, about 90% of which is recurring.
For its part Windsor, Connecticut-based SS&C has completed 40 acquisitions to date, including GlobeOp in 2012 and DST Global Solutions in 2014.
"We have been more successful in the [wealth management and advisory] segment via our history, which includes Black Diamond as our flagship offering, said Advent CEO Pete Hess, in an interview with ThinkAdvisor. "They are buying us to offer their capabilities to our customers, including those in the advisor space," and vice versa.
Industry Play
The advisory space is the fastest-growing segment of the financial services industry, Hess points out.
"There are very few new hedge funds, banks or insurance firms or mutual fund companies. But firms are forming in the RIA space, where Advent is very well positioned to serve them," the CEO said. SS&C "deliberately bought Advent, since we are in a part of the market where they haven't played so much yet."
Tech watchers say Advent is very advanced in what it is doing with cloud-based technology. But its portfolio reporting tools are equally, if not more, attractive.
