Houlihan Lokey Advises Northplains Systems

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Northplains Systems Corp. (Northplains), a portfolio company of Accel-KKR, has been acquired by ESW Capital under its Aclate, Inc. (Aclate) family of companies. The transaction closed on December 20, 2018. 

Founded in 1994 with headquarters in Toronto, Canada, Northplains is a solution for enterprise digital asset management (DAM) systems and the platform of choice for organizations that require protection, control, and rapid access to millions of images, videos, and other rich media files for commercial use and reuse across global markets and channels.

The company has expanded its initial DAM system to encompass content lifecycle management (CLM), helping companies align every decision with a company's business goals, from creation and collaboration to decision-making, distribution, and measurement. One singular dashboard connects assets to the marketing stack—optimizing and streamlining workflow.

Aclate acquires companies that offer proven, and often mission-critical, software solutions. Taking advantage of shared support services to handle day-to-day operations, brands under the Aclate portfolio are supported to focus on the customer side of the business. Effective product investments, marketing, and customer interactions allow Aclate companies to achieve the highest levels of customer success. Aclate is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with remote team members across the globe.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to Northplains. This transaction represents Houlihan Lokey's continued position as a leading advisor within the digital asset management and content management segments.