

- Firm invested roughly $200 mln of equity in 2015
- Adobe acquired Magento for $1.68 bln
- Hillhouse Capital to exit its stake as well
Permira is poised to make more than 5x its money on the $1.68 billion sale of Magento Commerce to Adobe, a source with knowledge of the deal said.
Hillhouse Capital, which invested $250 million in Magento last year, will also sell its stake to Adobe.
The deal, announced May 21, is expected to close in the third quarter, pending regulatory review.
A group composed of Permira, Sterling Partners, Innotrac Corp and Longview Asset Management acquired eBay’s enterprise business in 2015. Permira invested $200 million in the deal and spun out one of the eBay Enterprise business units, Magento, into an independent platform once the deal closed.
Magento is a digital platform that provides services to online merchants. The company handles roughly $155 billion of merchandise volume each year, its website said.
The company undertook several strategic initiatives during Permira’s ownership, including launching a cloud-first platform for businesses and hiring new leadership for its product, sales, marketing and business-development teams.
“We were pleased to support Magento’s ambitions through our global platform and sector expertise, and we are confident that Magento has found a terrific home with one of the Company’s major existing partners, Adobe,” Permira Partner Phil Guinand said in a news release.
Qatalyst Partners was a financial adviser to Permira in the transaction. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson was a legal adviser to the firm.
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