Tampa, Florida – March 19, 2009 – Hyde Park Capital Advisors, LLC (“Hyde Park Capital”) is pleased to announce the closing of two investment banking transactions for its client Empower Software Solutions (“Empower”), including the recapitalization of Empower by Atlanta Equity Fund, LP (“Atlanta Equity”) and the acquisition by Empower of Sage Compliance Services business from Sage North America. Orlando-based Empower is an emerging leader in the human resources management solutions (“HRMS”) industry with a focus on mid-to-large enterprise employers (1,000+ employees) with over 100 of the Fortune 500 as clients. Empower offers platform solutions across HR Management/Payroll, Time and Attendance, Scheduling and Tax Compliance. Hyde Park Capital Advisors, LLC, the investment banking subsidiary of Hyde Park Capital Partners, LLC, initiated and served as Empower’s investment banker and financial advisor in the two transactions.
In connection with the investment in Empower by Atlanta Equity, Atlanta Equity Chairman, A.D. (“Pete”) Correll, who will also become Chairman of the Empower Board of Directors commented, “My partners and I look forward to working closely with the Empower management team and the exceptional Board of Directors that Seth Bernstein has assembled.” Mr. Bernstein, CEO of Empower added, “The investment by Atlanta Equity provides the capital to fuel the Company as it continues to delight its existing clients, invest in world- class technology and aggressively grow its client base while establishing the Company as a powerful change-agent within the HRMS market. The Atlanta Equity partners have extensive experience guiding growth companies into becoming market leaders, and we intend to take advantage of their expertise.”
Regarding the acquisition of Sage Compliance Services, Seth Bernstein, CEO of Empower, commented, “We are pleased to expand our suite of Human Resources Solutions for mid-to-large companies through this agreement. Empower will be an even stronger company with the addition of the payroll tax compliance services business; a tremendous and experienced group of dedicated employees; and some of the strongest and best-known companies on our already long list of Fortune 500 customers.”
John H. Hill, Jr., Senior Managing Director at Hyde Park Capital said, “We thank Seth Bernstein and his senior management team at Empower for the opportunity to work as investment banker to Empower and to help the Company accomplish several of its key strategic and financial objectives. The acquisition of Sage’s tax filing and compliance business, including its proprietary technology, IP and marquee enterprise level client list, is highly complementary to Empower’s payroll platform. Additionally, David Crosland, Co- Managing Partner at Atlanta Equity, and his partners at Atlanta Equity are first rate professional investors and certainly will add considerable value as equity partners in Empower going forward.” Mr. Bernstein further commented, “We thank the Hyde Park Capital team for their assistance and advice in consummating both of these important transactions for Empower.” David Crosland also commented, “We very much look forward to working with Seth Bernstein and further growing Empower and we thank Hyde Park Capital for introducing Atlanta Equity to this compelling investment opportunity and initiating this transaction.”
About Empower Software Solutions
Empower Software Solutions, formerly Empagio and headquartered in Orlando, Florida, provides Payroll, Human Resources, and Workforce Time & Labor Management Solutions software and services to many of the Fortune 100 companies. Empower is a robust platform that has been servicing large corporations for over 25 years. Empower is dedicated to providing superior service along with state-of-the-art Payroll and Human Resources solutions. The software and services are highly reliable and produce over 100 million paychecks annually. For more information, please visit www.empowersoftware.com.
About Atlanta Equity
Atlanta Equity is a private equity firm with $109 million in capital under management, focused on making investments in growth companies primarily in the Southeast. Established in 2007, Atlanta Equity focuses on deploying capital in lower middle market companies with revenues between $20 million and $200 million and EBITDA greater than $5 million. The firm particularly favors investments in business and healthcare services, specialty manufacturing, technology, consumer products and services and selectively retail. For more information, please visit www.atlantaeq.com.
About Sage North America
Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and services. Sage solutions support accounting, operations, customer relationship management, human resources, time tracking, merchant services and the specialized needs of the construction, distribution, healthcare, manufacturing, nonprofit and real estate industries. Sage North America employs approximately 4,800 people and supports 2.9 million small and medium-size business customers. The Sage Group plc, formed in 1981, was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and now employs more than 14,500 people and supports more than 5.8 million customers worldwide. For more information, please visit the web site at www.sagenorthamerica.com or call 866-308-2378.
About Hyde Park Capital
Hyde Park Capital is an institutionally focused investment banking firm serving the corporate finance needs of companies typically operating in the healthcare and business services industries and most often located in Florida and the Southeastern United States. Our principals have extensive investment banking experience executing merger & acquisition engagements, including purchase and sale of company assignments, recapitalizations, financial advisory, fairness opinions and raising growth capital and acquisition financing for companies, including equity, mezzanine and senior debt. We pride ourselves on our professional representation of both middle market public companies and family owned and entrepreneurial driven large private companies. As one of the most active investment banking firms in the Southeast, our professionals have advised on more than 300 corporate investment banking transactions totaling more than $10 billion in transaction value. We are headquartered in Tampa, Florida and are a member of FINRA and SIPC. For additional information about Hyde Park Capital, visit www.hydeparkcapital.com or call (813) 383-0202.
