Finance Monthly M&A Awards 2019 - Winners Edition

FINANCE MONTHLY M&A AWARDS 2019 55 FIRM PROFILE Sampford Advisors has been Canada’s #1 Mid-Market Tech M&A Adviser since 2017, having completed more transactions than any other advisor. The team combines over 40 years of investment banking experience with a dedication to mid-market Tech M&A. Sampford provides full M&A services to its clientele, such as Buyside & Sellside M&A, and Fairness Opinions. Since its inception in 2015, the firm has completed 12 deals and is currently working on 15 active mandates. With 300+ private equity relationships and 1,400+ strategic buyer relationships, Sampford is best-suited to help North America’s thriving tech ecosystem execute successful M&A mandates. AREAS OF EXPERTISE Since starting Sampford, the team has worked on numerous deals in highly specialized verticals such as Software / SaaS, Industrial IoT, Intellectual Property, Unified Communications, Digital Media and Content Publishing, Hardware, and other niche verticals that fall under the technology, media and telecom umbrella. At the right time, many companies will begin to look at M&A as a potential exit alternative or a way to grow their business. Having an experienced advisor help guide you through this process is critical. Sampford provides beginning to end solutions including; initial prep, marketing work, valuations, negotiations, final documentation and transaction closure. TRANSACTION HIGHLIGHTS Sampford Advisors completed a complex transaction which involved the sale of two software companies simultaneously to the same buyer - acting as the sole advisor to Solufy andDatasplice on its sale to Francisco Partners’ backed Prometheus Group. Solufy is an Ottawa-based software company that has successfully developed and commercialized a solution for enhancing and simplifying planning, scheduling and data management in IBM’s enterprise asset management solution, Maximo. Datasplice specializes in mobile computing systems that integrate with enterprise asset management systems such as IBM Maximo. “Their ability to quickly understand our business and produce all the required analysis and reports throughout the due diligence process is simply amazing.” - Mario Boileau, President & CEO of Solufy “Their expertise was instrumental in guiding us through the sell-side process from start to finish. They found the right partners to ensure a strong future for our company and employees.” - Scott Kunze, Founder and CEO of Datasplice. ABOUT ED BRYANT Ed began his career in Hong Kong with Morgan Stanley’s Tech Media Telecom corporate finance team. He then joined Deutsche Bank as an investment banker where he worked in major cities like Singapore and New York. During this time, he completed over $20 billion in debt and equity capital raises, with over $10 billion in M&A. Raising a family in New York wasn’t easy, so Ed moved to Ottawa in 2013 where he became the VP of Corporate Development at Conversant, a technology company and was quickly promoted to CFO. As part of this role, he realized there was a lack of M&A coverage for mid-market tech companies in Canada. Leveraging the two decades of experience gathered, he launched Sampford in 2015 with the mandate to provide the same quality of advisory service provided by the big banks, but with an entrepreneurial flare.