BY Fraser Tennant
In a deal designed to deal with the challenges of rising input costs and labour shortages, Thoma Bravo portfolio company QAD has acquired employee productivity platform Redzone for $1bn.
The acquisition of Redzone’s connected workforce product – which serves over 1000 plants and 300,000 frontline workers globally – will enable QAD customers to drive rapid, tangible increases in empowerment, retention and productivity on the frontline.
“We are delighted to bring Redzone into the QAD family,” said Anton Chilton, chief executive of QAD. “We believe the emerging connected workforce space is the most transformational area of technology for manufacturing companies. As we assessed the market for the category leader, it was evident that not only is Redzone the number one provider globally, but also the pioneer of the category and the one who continues to define it.”
The addition of Redzone's connected workforce product supercharges the QAD Adaptive Applications product suite by enabling QAD customers to drive rapid, tangible increases in empowerment, retention and productivity on the frontline.
QAD Adaptive Applications are designed to support the Adaptive Enterprise where in a turbulent world, facing disruptions in supply and fluctuations in demand, manufacturers and supply chains rapidly respond to change and seamlessly optimise agility, efficiency and resilience for effective customer service.
“Joining QAD will accelerate our mission of transforming manufacturing by empowering the frontline,” said Richard Tester, co-founder and chief executive of Redzone. “We have always put the frontline worker at the heart of our technology and know that arming these teams with the right digital workflows is the fastest way to unlock productivity on the plant floor.”
QAD’s acquisition of Redzone is its second such transaction completed in the last two months. In December, the company acquired Livejourney, a provider of a real-time process mining and predictive modelling solution designed to discover, monitor and improve business processes.
“Since acquiring QAD in 2021, we have remained committed to supporting the company in its mission to enable its customers to rapidly adapt to disruption and effectively innovate for competitive advantage,” concluded Peter Stefanski, a partner at Thoma Bravo. “The acquisition of Redzone demonstrates our commitment to advancing QAD's vision and to further building its leadership position in the broader industrial software universe.”
News: Thoma Bravo-owned QAD to acquire Redzone for about $1 bln