Co Down entrepreneur sells technology business for £7m

A Northern Ireland entrepreneur who set up a software company to help local councils to be more efficient is selling the business to an Aim-listed company for up to £7.15 million (€7.8m).

Richard Martin, who founded Tascomi in 1998, is selling the Hillsborough, Co Down-based company which employs 36 people to Idox plc ,which provides specialist information management solutions and services.

Mr Martin is the majority shareholder in Tascomi, which is considered to be one of the North’s most successful indigenous, privately-owned software companies. Last month it was recognised as a “high potential UK tech” in the Great British Scaleup Programme run by advisory group TechMarketView.

Idox employs close to 900 people in 11 countries worldwide, and had revenues of £73.7 million last year. It expects the acquisition deal to complete by August 12th, and to be “earnings enhancing” in the first full year of ownership.

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Under the terms of the deal Idox will pay £5.43 million “immediately in cash” for Tascomi, another £1.15 million to “extinguish all existing debt in Tascomi” and a further £570,000 which may be payable within seven months depending on unspecified factors.

David Meaden, chief executive of Idox, believes the acquisition of Tascomi, which provides web and cloud-based software solutions to local authorities and government departments across Ireland and Britain, "is a sound strategic fit".

“The addition of Tascomi’s technology platform to Idox’s deep domain knowledge and account management model will be a powerful combination that will allow us to deliver the next generation of software solutions to customers in our core public sector markets, and drive enhanced shareholder value and service to customers,” said Mr Meaden.