STOWE, VT—Constellation Software, Inc. (CSI) has acquired Springer-Miller Systems, Inc., which will operate under the Jonas Group of companies within Constellation.
Larry Hall, president and CEO of PAR Springer-Miller, noted that PAR, the company’s previous owner, is primarily a hardware and government services business, whereas Springer-Miller is in the software space. Founded in 1984, Springer-Miller Systems develops comprehensive property management systems for hotels, resorts and spas, including the ATRIO Guest Experience Management platform, the SMS|Host Hospitality Management System and SpaSoft, a fully integrated, dynamic spa and activities management solution.
“PAR doesn’t necessarily service this industry other than restaurants,” said Hall. “Right after the first of the year, they started to look at strategic opportunities for their businesses and thought divesting us made sense. Investment bankers were hired and we looked at opportunities. CSI emerged and represented a terrific fit for both companies.”
Hall noted that there are a number of reasons why. “As you go through the process, you get to know a lot about them. Not only do you have to go through the legal and accounting side, but you get to know about their values, their culture, how they want to grow businesses,” he said. “CSI has been very successful in acquiring businesses like ours, positioning them as a platform and then growing that vertical. What that means for this company, taking our heritage products and the ATRIO product suite, and using that as a platform for additional growth and additional acquisitions underneath a new vertical. That is just a terrific opportunity for the company, particularly given a lot of the turmoil that’s in the industry today. There are a lot of good companies out there smaller than ours that would make a good strategic fit, and CSI has the financial wherewithal and skills to cause those to happen. That’s the exciting part of this transaction. This company is in a good spot to grow and expand and really have a far more dominant role in the industry.”
But, while the company will grow, Hall doesn’t expect the core of its philosophies to change much. “This is a really key point. Constellation’s modus operandi is to acquire a business and not impose on it a different culture or way of operating,” he stressed. “Clearly, they have reporting and management requirements, but they tend to acquire businesses and let them operate on an independent basis. What that means is things like culture and focus on innovation tend to stay intact. The business model is not an acquire, and slash and burn, merge kind of thing.”
The company will go through a transition period, which Hall expects to last into December. “I will be moving on after a transition period, and they will be putting a new CEO in place who will be named probably in the next two to three weeks,” he said. “In the meantime, Barry Symons is running the business. He runs a very large vertical within Constellation.
We have a very strong management team in place,” he continued, noting that over the past 24 hours, customers have been very supportive. “Our customers are seeing the value this brings to not only them but the industry. There’s a fair amount of disruption occurring in the industry today, a lot of M&A activity, a lot of people moving around and this company is as well-positioned as it has ever been to realize its vision, and CSI is going to be a terrific partner in that process.”