Business tech firm in Blue Bell sold, plans hiring and growth

Blue Bell-based Anexinet, a survivor in the fast-changing business of helping area companies apply new business software and run it from remote (cloud) servers, has been acquired by Mill Point Capital of New York, from Marlin Equity Partners, Los Angeles.

Under Mill Point, “we are looking to grow the company outside the region,” says Anexinet chief executive Todd Pittman.

Anexinet employs about 280 -- including 200 in Philadelphia; 50 in Guadalajara, Mexico; and 30 at home or remote locations -- and is looking to add 15. The headcount has remained in the 250-to-300 range over the last several years. Like other tech companies, “we find recruiting qualified candidates difficult” in both the U.S. and the fast-growing Mexico tech sector, but remote hiring has eased local shortages, Pittman said.

The company’s customer base includes a long list of Philadelphia-area employers: Iqvia (formerly IMS Health,) the New Jersey-based health-care data giant with operations in Plymouth Meeting and Collegeville; cafeteria giant Aramark, of Philadelphia; tax-software maker Vertex of King of Prussia; DLL Financial Services, the Wayne-based U.S.railcar and equipment leasing arm of Dutch industrial financier DLL; high-tech fabric developer W.L. Gore, Newark, Del.; and floor-maker Armstrong World Industries, Lancaster.

The buyer and seller aren’t saying what Mill Point agreed to pay. After growing Anexinet through a string of acquisitions, departing owner Marlin thought it was a good time to sell at a profit, Pittman told me. From the standpoint of a company’s leaders and employees, “one strategic buyer trading to another is an ideal world. They saw us and they liked us.” Mill Point is run by Michael Duran, a veteran buyout dealmaker.

The fund, which raised $450 million from the City of Los Angeles pension system and other investors in 2016, “has capital to deploy,” and plans to grow Anexinet both by adding area customers and through more acquisitions, Pittman said.

Mill Point’s Duran in a statement praised his firm’s new acquisition as “a leading specialized reseller in the IT marketplace,” and said he plans to keep Pittman and his team in charge while boosting services to provide a “complete digital experience.”

Anexinet builds custom mobile and digital applications for businesses, and helps them pick, install, run, and update commercial cloud and infrastructure solutions for key business processes.

Pittman is the fourth CEO to run Anexinet since Marlin bought it five years ago. He was promoted in January, after four years as chief financial officer, as predecessor Brad Hokamp returned to his native Virginia. Pittman, who grew up in Texas, came to the Philadelphia area in 1995 as a CPA at Coopers & Lybrand, and raised his family here as he moved into IT management.

As it sought to sell Anexinet last winter, Marlin was looking for a new boss with private-equity experience, which Pittman gained when he helped sell the former, publicly traded Sanchez Computer Associates of King of Prussia to Fidelity National Financial Inc. in 2004, and in later boss jobs for private firms backed by local investors Inverness Graham Investments and Musser Group.

His lieutenants include executive vice president and infrastructure John Kolimago, who joined Anexinet in 2001 and worked previously at Actium, an Anexinet predecessor.

In 2018 Anexinet bought Propelics, a San Jose, Calif.-based “enterprise-mobility strategies and applications” firm. That firm’s four partners remain with Anexinet “in leadership positions,” Pittman said.

In 2016, Anexinet bought ListenLogic, a $4 million (yearly sales) Conshohocken social-intelligence firm, which mined data from Facebook and other social media for clients including Allstate, Comcast, and Pfizer.

Back in 2008, Anexinet took over Virtus Partners LLC, East Norriton, adding data services to its business services base. Previous acquisitions included Sycamore Group, Fort Washington. (Updated 6/28/19)