Searchlight and Abry close Kore take-private acquisition

Searchlight Capital Partners and Abry Partners have completed the take-private acquisition of Kore Group Holdings, PE Hub reported. The transaction was previously reported by PE Hub at $726 million, providing the disclosed valuation marker for the deal.

Kore, based in Atlanta, provides Internet of Things connectivity, solutions and analytics, according to PE Hub. The company was founded in 2003 and is led by Ron Totton, who serves as president and chief executive officer.

A take-private acquisition transfers a publicly traded company into private ownership. In such transactions, the buyer group typically acquires the company’s outstanding public equity and the company no longer has the same public-market reporting and trading profile after the deal closes. PE Hub did not report additional terms in its brief notice of completion.

The closing places Kore under the ownership of Searchlight and Abry, two investment firms active in private company transactions. For the buyers, private ownership can allow operational and capital decisions to be made outside the quarterly reporting cadence of public markets. For existing public shareholders, completion of a take-private deal generally marks the end of their direct listed equity exposure to the acquired company, subject to the terms of the transaction.

The reported deal also reflects continuing private equity interest in communications infrastructure and technology services tied to connected devices. Kore’s business sits in the IoT market, where enterprises use connectivity and analytics services to link physical assets, machines and devices to digital systems.

PE Hub reported the transaction’s completion and the earlier $726 million figure. No financing details, shareholder vote information or post-closing operating changes were included in the reported notice.

This story draws on original reporting from PE Hub.