Potawatomi business unit acquires Wisconsin technology company
The Potawatomi Business Development Corp. (PBDC) announced a complete buyout of OneProspect Technologies, a Wisconsin company that has offices in Crandon and Rhinelander. By purchasing the remaining interest in the company, the Forest County Potawatomi Community now owns 100 percent of the business.
OneProspect provides state-of-the-art network infrastructure and Internet protocol (IP) communications solutions to business customers throughout the United States. PBDC first took a 49 percentage ownership in OneProspect Technologies in February 2006.
“OneProspect has demonstrated the commitment and desire we are seeking with our acquisitions,” said Carol Leese, CEO of PBDC. “The buyout allows us to fully leverage our minority status for targeting Government contracts. Our immediate growth plans include opening a OneProspect Milwaukee office later this month and future offices on the west coast.”
Baird equity group acquires competing manufacturers
Baird Capital Partners (BCP), the private equity affiliate of Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc., has acquired two of the leading suppliers of outdoor wood play sets.
With the acquisitions, Backyard Adventures Inc. of Amarillo, Texas, and Leisure Time Products Inc. of Pittsburg, Kan., will operate as separate subsidiaries of Backyard Leisure Holdings Inc.
Both companies supply ready-to-assemble wood play sets to the mass market, warehouse club and home improvement channels and custom high-end wood play sets to the specialty dealer network.
Ron Scripsick, chief executive officer of Leisure Time, said the partnership will help both companies.
“Our businesses are complementary. While Leisure Time has a strong commitment to providing the most innovative and high quality products to the mass retail channel, Backyard’s focus is on providing novel and fresh ideas to the specialty dealer channel.”
M&I plans another acquisition
Marshall & Ilsley Corp., the Milwaukee-based parent company of M&I Bank, is continuing its spree of acquisitions by signing a definitive agreement to buy Minneapolis-based Excel Bank Corp.
Excel, with $633 million in consolidated assets, has four branches in the Twin Cities area. Under the agreement, Excel shareholders will receive $9.08 in cash and $4.89 in M&I common stock for each share of Excel common stock, or a total of $13.97. The transaction value is approximately $105 million.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2007, subject to the affirmative vote of Excel’s shareholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.
“Excel has been a very important correspondent banking relationship for M&I, and we are particularly pleased that the Excel team is joining M&I,” said Mark Furlong, president of Marshall & Ilsley.
Excel Bank Minnesota, founded in 1965, has grown its total assets from $267 million to $615 million over the past five years.
The transaction will be the latest in a series of acquisitions by Marshall and Ilsley, which last year acquired United Heritage Bankshares of Florida Inc. of Orlando, Gold Banc Corp. Inc. of Leawood, Kan., and Trustcorp Financial Inc. of St. Louis, Mo.
RedPrairie acquires Canadian company
RedPrairie Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire GEOCOMtms Inc. of Quebec, Canada.
The combined companies, operating under the name RedPrairie Corp., will integrate and support all products and services from both organizations within RedPrairie’s end-to-end E2E suite.
The acquisition will help RedPrairie, which is based in the Town of Brookfield, to meet the fleet requirements of many industries, including food and grocery, petroleum, retail, courier and health care delivery.
RedPrairie’s Global Transportation Group will integrate and oversee GEOCOMtms’s Quebec City and Atlanta, Ga., offices under the direction of RedPrairie Global Transportation group president Tim Conroy.
GEOCOMtms specializes in providing optimization to manage multiple-stop daily delivery fleet scheduling.
“As we continue to expand our transportation capabilities in North America and beyond, this solution brings RedPrairie customers exciting capabilities to manage domestic and international fleet requirements. It also benefits GEOCOMtms customers who will have access to RedPrairie’s E2E transportation and supply chain capabilities,” Conroy said.
RedPrairie chief executive officer John Jazwiec said, “We have enjoyed a long-term, successful partnership with GEOCOMtms, having offered their advanced solutions to our customer base. We now look forward to bringing these capabilities in-house and welcoming GEOCOMtms customers and employees into the RedPrairie family.”
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Minnesota company acquires Janus Security Services
American Security LLC of St. Paul, Minn., has acquired Milwaukee-based Janus Security Services.
The acquisition enables American Security to expand its footprint in the Milwaukee market.
“We are excited about this acquisition and its implications for our long-term growth strategy,” said Steven Klein, president and chief operating officer of American Security. “We acquired Martin Security (in Madison) in 2004 and see the addition of Janus Security as an important step in expanding our service offerings in Wisconsin.”
American Security has security experience in multi-tenant commercial, industrial, governmental, patrol, parking security and critical infrastructure.
Janus employs 55 security officers in Milwaukee and specializes in governmental, high-rise apartment, parking, industrial, patrol and alarm response services.
“Janus has a long history of providing quality service and we look forward to building upon their work in this market,” Klein said.
American Security is a subsidiary of Marsden Holding LLC, a privately held facility and security services organization comprised of eight companies and 7,000 employees.
MGIC affiliate to acquire REIT
Credit-Based Asset Servicing and Securitization LLC (C-BASS), an affiliate of Milwaukee-based MGIC Investment Corp., has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Fieldstone Investment Corp. of Columbia, Md.
New York-based C-Bass, which provides servicing and securitizing of credit-sensitive residential mortgages, is capitalized by MGIC, Radian Group Inc. and C-BASS management.
Under the terms of the agreement, C-BASS will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Fieldstone for $5.53 per share in cash. Fieldstone is a real estate investment trust (REIT).
Michael Sonnenfeld, Fieldstone’s president and chief executive officer, said, “We believe the significant premium to the market price that C-BASS is offering to our stockholders is the best opportunity for our stockholders to recognize value in this very challenging time in the non-prime mortgage industry. We believe that we will be more successful building our origination business by integrating our platform with C-BASS and Litton and their industry leading analytics, servicing and loss mitigation capability.”
