Flexera gets new majority shareholder, plans to hire more workers

Flexera Software CEO Mark Bishof sees growth ahead and a larger workforce after a majority investor in his Schaumburg-based company this week sold off its shares to another investor, a teachers pension plan.

Flexera (www.flexerasoftware.com) said this week that Teachers’ Private Capital, a private investment department of the Ontario (Canada) Teachers’ Pension Plan, is now the majority owner. It purchased the shares from Thoma Bravo LLC, an equity firm. The pension plan sought the majority ownership unsolicited, said Bishof.

“The pension plan invests in midlevel market companies and software firms,” said Bishof. “The nature of what we do was attractive to them.”

Flexera provides application management software, including InstallShield for developers. It has about 500 employees, including about 200 at the Schaumburg headquarters.

The pension plan also invests in the National Hockey League team of the Toronto Maple Leafs, GNC nutrition stores and the Serta mattress company.

No layoffs are expected and the company plans to continue operations as usual, Bishof said.

He does intend to hire more workers through the end of this year, he said.

“This investment is a validation of the growth we’ve had in this industry,” Bishof said.

While he declined to say how much the pension plan now owns, or what dollar figure they provided, he instead said the private company expects about $160 million in revenue this year.

Wonder if they’ll get free tickets to the Maple Leafs games?

Surfing: Northbrook native George Bousis and colleague Brad Wasz have launched CouponTrade.com. Bousis is 24, and after graduating from school, he worked at his family business, Cermak Fresh Markets, which has stores in Naperville, Batavia and Oswego, among other locations. He saw plenty of customers carrying invalid promotional coupons and then thought about starting a site for trading coupons. The site helps you to sell Daily Deal promotions or gift cards.

ŸThe Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce is hosting TechWeek (www.TechWeek.com) today through Friday, July 29 at the Merchandise Mart. It features Craig Newmark, founder of Craig’s List.

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