PE firms Apax, JMI Equity to buy software firm Paradigm for $1 bn

Private equity firms Apax Partners and JMI Equity today agreed to buy US-based oil and gas industry focussed software company Paradigm Ltd, for about $1 billion in cash.

Founded in 1987, Paradigm is the largest software company exclusively focused on the delivery of analytical and information management solutions for the discovery and extraction of oil and gas.

The Houston, Texas-based company's software enables engineers to optimise drilling and production decisions by analysing large quantities of seismic and well-log data, spanning the entire spectrum of the E&P lifecycle from basin evaluation through to development & production.

Paradigm, which was taken private in 2002 by private equity firm Fox Paine & Company, has over 700 clients, including major oil companies, national oil companies, independent exploration and production companies, and seismic processing service firms.

London-based Apax with about $20 billion in assets under management has invested over $1.7 billion in the enterprise software sector.

Its earlier investments in the software and IT space, includes Epicor Software Corp / Activant Solutions, Sophos, The TriZetto Group, RealPage, IntraLinks, Princeton Softech, Planview and Autonomy.