Consilio and Advanced Discovery to merge under private equity acquirer GI Partners

We’ve talked a lot about consolidation in the eDiscovery sector but this is in a different league: GI Partners, a leading private investment firm, announced today (21 March) that it will acquire Consilio, a global leader in eDiscovery, document review, and legal consulting services, and Advanced Discovery (formerly Millnet in the UK), a global eDiscovery and risk management provider, and combine the two businesses.

Upon completion of the transaction, the combined company will become #2 global leader in eDiscovery. Andy Macdonald, CEO of Consilio, will continue as CEO of the combined company. There is no word yet as to what role Jim Burke, CEO of Advanced Discovery, will take.

Advanced Discovery is expected to close in late March 2018. Consilio and the subsequent merger are expected to close in the second quarter of 2018, subject to usual and customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The combined company will consist of over 2,500 employees and operate more than 60 offices, review centres, and data centres spanning 11 countries. The company’s global operations will support large-scale, fast-moving matters that need to process, host, and review vast repositories of data. The full solutions suite will include information governance, risk management, eDiscovery, and document and contract review.

“This is an exciting and significant step for Consilio and Advanced Discovery to enhance our market leadership position as a global technology platform that will better serve our clients, offering them a broad suite of innovative solutions,” said Andy Macdonald, CEO of Consilio, who will continue as CEO of the combined company. “We are extremely pleased to partner with GI Partners, a firm that shares our guiding principles for delivering quality service to clients. We share an ongoing commitment to growing the combined company, both organically and through select acquisitions. We look forward to expanding our range of product technologies to support our growing customer needs anywhere in the world.”

Hoon Cho, Managing Director at GI Partners said, “We are pleased to be able to acquire and combine both businesses. Consilio and Advanced Discovery have complementary global operations and strong cultural fit. GI Partners’ successful history of investing in leading technology businesses will allow us to provide the tools and resources needed to support Andy and his team in driving accelerated growth.”

Jeff Sheu, Director at GI Partners said, “We are excited to partner with Andy and the combined company’s senior leadership team in this exciting new chapter together. Looking ahead, we plan to continue our focus on selectively expanding our service offerings, both organically and through acquisitions, to enhance the customer experience.”

The combined company represents the fourth platform investment in GI Partners Fund V, a $2.8 billion fund raised in 2017. Jefferies served as exclusive financial advisor and Paul Hastings acted as legal advisor to GI Partners. BlackArch Partners represented Advanced Discovery as its exclusive financial advisor. Harris Williams represented Consilio as its exclusive financial advisor.