Gladson, a Chicago-based portfolio company of The Jordan Company (TJC) and Wicks Capital Partners, has acquired Nashville-based Edgenet, a leading product content management software provider. The combination of Gladson’s industry-leading digital content creation and technology-enabled dissemination capabilities and Edgenet’s network of more than 10,000 brands will expand Gladson’s leadership position in its core markets, and further enhance the company’s mission to become an end-to-end single source of reliable product content and information with its clients. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Gladson and Edgenet are leading players in the product content and information management industry, each with exciting technology-enabled service offerings. We are excited to bring these two great companies together in order to satisfy our clients’ desire for a single-source provider of product information across a wide variety of industries. We are aligned in our mission to make continued investments in technology and innovation to meet our clients’ ever-changing and complex needs,” said Gladson CEO Paul Salay.
Salay added that Gladson is committed to Nashville and being part of its rapidly growing technology sector – a sector that will be bolstered by this significant acquisition, which is believed to be one of the largest acquisitions of a technology company in the city’s history.
“’This is more than a celebration of Edgenet and the incredible team we’ve been honored to work with, which has made everything possible. It’s also a testament to the vitality of Nashville’s tech community. The whole team is very excited to be joining the Gladson group of companies,” said Edgenet CEO Steve Proctor. “This is a great time to be working in technology in Nashville. We are honored to be part of it and, hopefully, to have done our part to make it better.”
“We are pleased and excited to welcome Edgenet to the Gladson family,” said Eion Hu, senior partner at TJC. “These two companies share many similar strengths – from best-in-class software for managing product data to an uncompromising focus on customer satisfaction. The combination marks a milestone in the industry and is wonderful news for companies who need to deliver and maintain complete and consistent product data across their operations – a need that the ever-growing importance of e-commerce makes particularly vital today.”
Gladson’s acquisition of Edgenet is the latest of several it has made in recent months. In January, Gladson acquired FSEnet+, a GS1 GDSN certified data management and syndication provider; in March, Gladson acquired Webcollage, the leading platform for managing and publishing rich product information across a vast network of retailer sites globally; and in June, Gladson acquired Nutritionix, a leading interactive digital platform that allows its users to upload, organize, track and publish nutrition data. The companies’ integrated offerings represent the industry’s only single-source provider of consumer product information and content from supply chain to end customer utilization, offering a powerful end-to-end product content experience across multiple industries.
Winston & Strawn LLP served as legal adviser to Gladson.
