William Blair acted as financial advisor to Appirio, a portfolio company of Fidelity, General Atlantic, GGV Capital, and Sequoia Capital, in connection with its pending acquisition by Wipro (NYSE:WIT) for $500 million. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval.
Transaction Highlights
- Industry expertise: Appirio and its investor group were attracted to William Blair’s extensive knowledge and experience in the IT services sector, particularly in the cloud services segment. William Blair’s team possessed a unique market perspective given precedent transactions in both the Salesforce and Workday ecosystems. In addition, William Blair’s extensive and long-standing relationships with global strategic buyers were critical to quickly identifying Wipro as the highest-likelihood buyer for Appirio and facilitating engagement between the two companies.
- Execution excellence: The William Blair team was integrally involved in coordinating due diligence and negotiating key contract terms, ultimately facilitating an exceptional outcome for Appirio’s stakeholders. The collective teams were able to proceed from introductory meeting to signing in less than 60 days, a nearly unprecedented pace for a transaction with a global strategic buyer.
- Long-term client relationship: William Blair’s IT services team maintained a strong relationship with Appirio management over multiple years. This relationship was essential to the transaction process and contract negotiations and fostered trust and confidence with both seller and acquirer.
About the Companies
Appirio is a global services company that helps customers create next-generation worker and customer experiences using the latest cloud technologies. The company’s consultants deliver unmatched customer value by creating actionable strategies that deliver results quickly and help organizations adapt to a new experience-driven era. Appirio does this by harnessing the power of one of the world’s largest crowdsourcing communities and thousands of prebuilt solution accelerators.
Wipro Ltd (NYSE:WIT) is a global information technology, consulting, and outsourcing company with 170,000-plus workforce serving clients in more than 175 cities across 6 continents. The company’s 55-plus dedicated emerging technologies “centers of excellence” enable Wipro to harness the latest technology for delivering business capability to its clients. Wipro is globally recognized for its innovative approach to delivering business value and its commitment to sustainability.