William Blair acted as financial advisor to Marlin Equity Partners (Marlin) in connection with its acquisition and merger of HotSchedules and Fourth. The acquisition closed in July 2019.
Transaction Highlights
- Creative and timely idea generation: William Blair leveraged its extensive experience and relationships with leading restaurant technology companies to propose to Marlin the investment idea of acquiring HotSchedules and Fourth, and merging the two companies. Coincidentally, Marlin was already in conversations with HotSchedules, and Fourth provided it with a unique opportunity in the acquisition discussions.
- Deep sponsor relationships and credibility: Through William Blair's extensive work with both Marlin and Insight Partners, the prior owners of Fourth, the transaction team was able to facilitate an introduction among the parties. This introduction effectively brought a quasi-strategic buyer to the table for Insight and Fourth, and helped Marlin prevail in its pursuit of HotSchedules.
About the Companies
HotSchedules provides state-of-the-art technology, services, and user experiences for the restaurant, retail, and hospitality verticals. Over 30,000 customers across 170,000-plus locations globally—from large international chains to independent and emerging concepts—rely on HotSchedules' software and solutions to help them control costs, maintain compliance, improve visibility, increase profitability, and drive operational consistency.
Fourth provides complete, end-to-end restaurant and hospitality management solutions that empower operators to optimize profits, enhance guest satisfaction, improve employee engagement, and scale profitably. Fourth offers an intuitive, all-in-one hospitality operations technology platform for purchase-to-pay and inventory and workforce management—underpinned by advanced demand forecasting, predictive analytics, and collaboration tools, as well as full-service payroll, benefits, and HRO services. Founded in 1999, Fourth serves more than 1,200 customers in 60 countries.
Marlin Equity Partners is a global investment firm with over $6.7 billion of capital under management. Marlin invests in businesses across multiple industries where its capital base, industry relationships, and extensive network of operational resources significantly strengthen a company's outlook and enhance value. Since its inception, Marlin, through its group of funds and related companies, has successfully completed over 150 acquisitions. The firm is based in Los Angeles, California, with an additional office in London.
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