SoftwareOne and Crayon announce tie-up

SoftwareOne has acquired fellow software and services specialist Crayon in a deal that values the Norwegian player at $1.4bn.

The combination will establish a powerful European operation that provides software and cloud solutions, with an expectation that the deal will expand the addressable markets for the business and reinforce key common relationships with vendors, including Microsoft.

Shareholders will be asked to back the deal, which should close in the third quarter of 2025, and were given an outline of the benefits of the move, with an emphasis on the potential to generate increased revenue from getting access to larger customer accounts and the opportunity to deliver “substantial revenue and cost synergies”.

Daniel von Stockar, SoftwareOne’s founding shareholder and chairman of the board of directors, said the combination of the complementary businesses would establish a major European channel player.

“We are excited to announce a new chapter for SoftwareOne and Crayon. This is a unique opportunity to bring together our complementary businesses, highly qualified teams and shared values based on entrepreneurial spirit,” he said.

“The business combination sets the stage for any ownership scenario, and we will now focus our efforts on completing the transaction successfully and integration. The compelling strategic rationale and substantial synergy potential are set to create significant value for our shareholders, including those joining from Crayon,” he added.

Raphael Erb, CEO of SoftwareOne, said the combined businesses would be targeting a “fast-growing market opportunity” driven by customers keen to continue their digital transformation efforts.

“Together with Crayon, we will have a broad global presence with extensive local reach, strong hyperscaler partnerships, including with Microsoft, and enhanced service offerings to meet customer needs. Building on our strong value-based foundations as leading global providers of software and cloud solutions, we will be very well positioned to drive accelerated growth and improved profitability,” he added.

The plan is for Erb and Crayon CEO Melissa Mulholland to become co-CEOs of the combined company.

Rune Syversen, founding shareholder and chairman of the board of directors of Crayon, also gave the deal his blessing.

“When we established Crayon in 2002, we had four goals: to be the customer’s trusted advisor, deliver with quality, lead with integrity and recruit the best people. Twenty-two years later, delivering on these goals has been fundamental to our success in becoming a global leader in IT and tech services. Combining Crayon and SoftwareOne will create an even stronger global player as we represent complementary businesses with substantial synergy and profitable growth potential that will generate significant value for our shareholders and employees,” he said.

Crayon CEO Mulholland said the combined business would be able to provide more value to partners and customers. “Our strong hyperscaler partnerships, including with Microsoft, will give us a strengthened services offering that will meet future customer needs,” she said.

Given the position of both firms within the Microsoft partner ecosystem, the vendor also gave its backing to the tie-up.

“SoftwareOne and Crayon have been strategic channel partners for Microsoft, and we are grateful for the work both companies have done to serve our joint customers over the years,” said Judson Althoff, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft.