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‘High quality’ Exton insurance software maker sold in $1.6 billion deal, 4X 2015 price

iPipeline, the Exton company that runs cloud-based life insurance and annuities systems that replaces clerks and files, was bought by Roper Technologies, Sarasota, for triple what its private-equity owners paid three years ago

Larry Berran, promoted to CEO of iPipeline by new owner Roper Technologies. His predecessor, Tim Wallace, is staying on as an adviser
Larry Berran, promoted to CEO of iPipeline by new owner Roper Technologies. His predecessor, Tim Wallace, is staying on as an adviserRead moreiPipeline

In a deal that underlines the rapid automation of the financial-services industry, iPipeline, an Exton-based, $200 million (yearly sales) company that makes policy management software for life insurance and investments, has been purchased by Roper Technologies Inc., based in Sarasota, Fla., for $1.625 billion in cash.

That’s more than four times what Chicago investment firm Thoma Bravo paid for iPipeline when it last changed hands in 2015.

iPipeline employs 625, including 275 at its Exton headquarters and other Philadelphia-area locations.

The buyer’s chief executive, Neil Hunn, called iPipeline a “high-quality business that will help grow and compound our cash flow.” He named Larry Berran, who joined iPipeline in 2002 and has served as chief financial officer and chief operating officer, as its new chief executive, succeeding veteran CEO Tim Wallace. Wallace will remain as a “strategic adviser,” said iPipeline marketing director Mike Persiano.

iPipeline had considered an initial public stock offering (IPO) in 2015, when its sales topped $60 million. But the company didn’t go public at that time. Instead, its venture capital owners, led by NewSpring Capital, of Radnor; Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV), of Palo Alto, Calif.; and Volition Capital, of Boston, sold iPipeline to Thoma Bravo — for $400 million, according to a person familiar with that deal.

Thoma Bravo established itself as a top investor in suburban Philadelphia software when it also acquired business-software maker Qlik, now based in King of Prussia, manufacturing-software maker Elemica, of Wayne, and human-resources software provider Frontline Education, of Malvern, in the early and mid-2010s.

Roper expects iPipeline to grow sales at nearly 10% a year, and hopes to close the deal before Sept. 30. Roper, which owns a string of businesses that develop, license, and service business software, is on the list of Standard & Poor’s 500 major company U.S. stocks.