Friday, February 11, 2011

Leading Oracle Consulting and Managed Service Provider, CedarCrestone and Golden Gate Capital Portfolio Company, Sierra Systems to Partner

CedarCrestone, a leading Oracle consulting and managed services provider, recently announced the closing of its sale to Golden Gate Capital, a global private equity firm based in San Francisco. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

With more than 600 consultants, CedarCrestone has a 30 year history of delivering client success. Headquartered in Alpharetta, Ga., CedarCrestone was formed in 2005 when Cedar Enterprise Solutions (founded in 1981) and Crestone International (founded in 1995) merged to create the leading North American service organization focused exclusively around Oracle PeopleSoft applications. Subsequently, CedarCrestone invested in capabilities around Oracle’s E-Business Suite and Fusion Technologies as well as in the growth of an off-shore delivery model. Today, CedarCrestone is one of the largest independent pure-play consultancies and managed services providers dedicated to the challenging needs of Oracle enterprise application customers.

“We have enjoyed our relationship with our private equity partner, Alchemy, for the past six years, and have grown with their help. We are now very excited about the opportunity to continue to grow and expand our services platform under the Golden Gate Capital umbrella,” said Cal Yonker, CEO of CedarCrestone. “We are extremely proud of our employees and of the quality of the organization we have built. In addition, we are very appreciative of our customers who have entrusted us with their confidence and support throughout the years. This transaction is an important milestone for CedarCrestone, and we look forward to enhancing our service capabilities and serving our customers even better.”

Cal Yonker and Brian Fees will remain CEO and CFO, respectively, of CedarCrestone.

Simultaneous to the close of this transaction, Yonker will lead a strategic partnership between CedarCrestone and Sierra Systems, another Golden Gate Capital portfolio company. Yonker will take responsibility to accelerate market, industry and solution synergies between the two companies.

“CedarCrestone is a market leader in the Oracle consulting ecosystem. We have known Cal and the CedarCrestone team since 2007, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with them,” said Jake Mizrahi, Managing Director of Golden Gate Capital. “I’m also excited about the synergies between Sierra Systems and CedarCrestone. The combined market coverage, industry depth and breadth of capabilities will allow us to compete on a much larger stage.”

TM Capital Corp. served as the exclusive financial advisor to CedarCrestone on the transaction. Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, L.C. served as legal counsel to CedarCrestone. Kirkland & Ellis LLC served as legal counsel to Golden Gate Capital.

About CedarCrestone

CedarCrestone delivers industry-focused client success by providing consulting, technical and managed services for the deployment, management and optimization of enterprise applications and technology. For more information, visit www.cedarcrestone.com.

About Sierra

Sierra Systems is an IT and management consulting services company with more than 1,000 employees in 13 markets across North America and a development center in Romania. Sierra’s primary goal is improving client’s performance by marrying advanced technology with industry knowledge and development expertise. For more information, visit www.sierrasystems.com.

About Golden Gate Capital

Golden Gate Capital, headquartered in San Francisco, is a global private equity investment firm with approximately $8 billion of capital under management. Investors include leading educational endowments, non-profit foundations, and selected financial institutions, entrepreneurs and managers. The firm’s charter is to invest in change-intensive and growth-oriented situations where there is a demonstrable opportunity to significantly enhance a company’s value. The principals of Golden Gate Capital have completed approximately 140 such transactions aggregating to more than $19 billion in enterprise value across all major sectors of the economy. Golden Gate Capital’s philosophy of building value over the long term affords its portfolio management teams the flexibility to pursue value creation opportunities without regard for artificial timing constraints such as pre-set hold periods. For more information, visit www.goldengatecap.com.

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