Confirmit 'Forcibly Sold' to Private Equity Fund Verdane

Research software firm Confirmit has been sold to Nordic private equity fund Verdane for an undisclosed sum, following a long-running battle with its billionaire owner Alexander Vik. Verdane is an investor in data visualisation reporting firm Dapresy, which it will merge with Confirmit.

Confirmit, which is headquartered in Norway, with additional offices in the UK, US, Russia, Canada and Australia, provides solutions for customer experience, employee experience and market research. In 2016, a Norwegian judge agreed to freeze shares in Confirmit, as Deutsche Bank continued its more than decade-long campaign to recover over $288m from previous sole shareholder Vik and his investment fund, Sebastian Holdings. Then last year, a court ruled that shares in the research software firm could be forcibly sold.

Confirmit previously merged with Pulse Train, CustomerSat, Techneos, Integrasco, and IRM. The company has now been snapped up by Verdane, which is joined by equity growth investor Zobito as co-investor. As part of the deal, Confirmit will be merged with Swedish business Dapresy, with which, it already shares many clients; and the firms say that employees of both companies will benefit from working with a larger team.

Ken Østreng (pictured), CEO at Confirmit, comments: 'This is a hugely exciting move not only for both businesses and their customers, but also for the wider market. As companies who share our goals and values, we're delighted to be working with both Verdane and Dapresy as we enter this new chapter'.

Web sites: www.confirmit.com and www.dapresy.com .