STG Sells Mobile Analytics Specialist for $780m

Private equity firm Symphony Technology Group (STG) is selling its mobile industry software and analytics services firm Symphony Teleca to holding group Harman International Incorporated, for an initial $780m.

Mountain View, California-based Symphony Teleca offers a range of UX (user experience) design, analytics and engineering services, to help clients develop product and technologies across the smart device, software, cloud and data arenas. The firm has more than 8,000 employees in over 40 offices worldwide, including the Americas, Europe and Asia, and for the year 2014 generated revenues of approximately $370m.

Harman said the buy would add cloud, mobile, and analytics capabilities to its businesses, along with predictive analytics software. The group will pay a base price of $780m, with the selling stockholders eligible for a cash earn-out based on 2015 revenue targets. Upon closing of the deal, Symphony Teleca CEO Sanjay Dhawan will join Harman and lead the new business division.

Harman Chairman, President and CEO Dinesh Paliwal (pictured) comments: 'The acquisition of Symphony Teleca is a transformative step that gives us immediate scale in software services. With the addition of cloud, mobility and analytics competencies, we will accelerate solutions for the connected car and for a broader set of industries and markets.'

Web sites: www.harman.com and www.symphonyteleca.com .