PRESS RELEASE
“Shackleton Ventures from Ireland to America. A Profitable Journey” Shackleton Ventures Limited (“Shackleton”) announces today the profitable sale of its interest in Mobileum following the acquisition of Mobileum by Audax Private Equity (“Audax”). Santa Clara based Mobileum, previously known as Roamware, was founded in 2001 and has sold its roaming and analytics solutions to over 600 Mobile Network Operators worldwide. In 2014, Mobileum added a suite of innovative, analytic-driven solutions to its product portfolio to broaden its reach and value outside roaming. Audax, based in Boston, Massachusetts partners with management teams to transform and enlarge established market leading companies.
Shackleton acquired an interest in Mobileum as a result of Mobileum’s purchase of an Irish software company called Macalla. Shackleton had acquired a 49.9% interest in Macalla from institutional and other vendors in 2008. Macalla, based in Dublin Ireland, provided mobile payments solutions, particularly to telecoms operators in developing countries where there is only a limited banking system.
Exactly one year later Shackleton sold its interest in Macalla to Mobileum for a combination of cash and equity. Steve Burton, Shackleton Director responsible for the acquisition and sale of Macalla, became an observer to the Board of Mobileum. Steve said of the sale of Macalla,
“It is immensely satisfying to have delivered for our Limited Partners a rapid and profitable exit of our investment in Macalla only 365 days after investing. I’m looking forward to the next phase with Mobileum”.
The Audax acquisition of Mobileum means that Shackleton has now sold all of its equity interest in Mobileum. Shackleton receives a positive cash return on its original investment and becomes an equity holder in Globetouch, a Mobileum spin-off that offers access to a cloud-based global
ecosystem for mobile devices.
Hugh Stewart, Shackleton’s Managing Director, said: “Following the successful exit from Macalla, this sale of our equity in Mobileum puts the icing on
the cake, thanks to an excellent business and a strong management team. The deal underlines our creative approach to exit which has resulted in sixteen profitable realisations since Shackleton was formed.”
