Upland Software Acquires Marketing Software Business Kapost for $45M
Austin—Upland Software is paying $ 45 million to acquire Kapost, a Boulder, CO-based company with software for managing marketing content.
Upland (NASDAQ: UPLD) sells business applications, including some for communicating with customers, managing sales, and automating financial and professional services. Kapost was founded in 2009 and sells software for planning, production, and distribution of marketing and sales content.
Acquisition is a go-to business strategy for Upland. The company made 20 deals for companies from February 2012 to this past March. In its most recent purchase, Upland bought e-mail marketing automation company PostUp for $35 million in April. PostUp was founded by Joshua Baer, who also co-founded Austin co-working space and accelerator Capital Factory. Upland reported $149.9 million in revenue in 2018, up from only $22.8 million in 2012. Upland attributes the steep increase to its history of acquisitions.
Upland said in a news release it expects its deal for Kapost to add $15 million in annual revenue. For the whole of 2019, the company said it is expecting to report sales of $209 million to $213 million.
Upland’s history dates to the founding of Silverback Enterprise Group, which was launched in 2010 with the backing of Austin Ventures. Silverback renamed itself Upland in 2013 and raised $46 million in an initial public offering in 2014. Also in 2014, the company spun out Magnitude Software, which sold a $179 million stake to London-based private equity firm 3i Group in March of this year.
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