Platinum Equity announced today that it has acquired Quark, a provider of publishing software for professional designers and enterprise organizations.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Quark is a legendary brand that helped create the desktop publishing market and is now helping organizations transform how they publish content both to print and digital media,” said Brian Wall, partner at Platinum who led the team pursuing the acquisition, in the press release. “Quark is committed to its loyal and dedicated user base and we are enthusiastic about the company’s new products which are gaining traction and generating positive reviews. We believe that with their expertise and innovative software, Quark has the potential to revolutionize publishing again.”
Advertisement: Limited Time: Students, Parents and Faculty save up to $200 on a new Mac.
Based in Denver, Colo., Quark provides a set of software applications targeted at creative professionals and the enterprise dynamic publishing market. These tools are components in a value chain of software products that enable the creation, management, publication, and delivery of content across a variety of media including print, email, web, social media, and the next generation of e-reader, tablet, and mobile devices such as the iPad.
“This transition comes at an exciting time for our company and our customers. In the past few years we have made great strides in helping our customers realize dynamic publishing, have re-invigorated QuarkXPress, and have readied Quark to take an early leadership position in digital publishing,” said Raymond Schiavone, President and CEO at Quark, in the press release. “Platinum Equity is well-positioned to help us continue to execute our dynamic publishing vision through their market reach, merger and acquisition experience, and operational support. This is the natural next step for Quark’s evolution.”
Mr. Wall said that Platinum Equity has already initiated a process focused on transitioning Quark to new ownership. The Platinum operations team is working together with the Quark management team to focus on Quark’s core markets and create an acquisition strategy focused on expanding the breadth and depth of Quark’s product capabilities and geographic coverage.
About Quark
Quark Software Inc. is a leading provider of publishing software for professional designers, small and mid-sized businesses, and large organizations in more than 160 countries. Two decades ago, Quark’s flagship product — QuarkXPress — changed the course of traditional publishing. For more than 25 years, Quark has built on its knowledge and experience in design and publishing to provide software solutions that support collaborative workflows and automated publishing across multiple channels. Today, Quark is revolutionizing publishing again by setting new standards in XML-based publishing across print, the Web, and digital media, as well as by helping owners and employees of small and mid-sized businesses promote their products and services easily, professionally, and affordably. Denver-based Quark Inc. is privately held.
About Platinum Equity
Platinum Equity (www.platinumequity.com) is a global M&A&O® firm specializing in the merger, acquisition and operation of companies that provide services and solutions to customers in a broad range of business markets, including information technology, telecommunications, logistics, metals services, manufacturing and distribution. Since its founding in 1995 by Tom Gores, Platinum Equity has completed more than 115 acquisitions.
Source: Quark Inc.
MacDailyNews Take: Quark’s (now former) CEO Fred Ebrahimi once said that the Macintosh platform was shrinking and Mac users who were dissatisfied with Quark’s Mac commitment should switch to something else.
We did.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “GetMeOnTop” for the heads up.]
Related article:
Dissatisfied with Quark’s Mac commitment? Quark CEO says ‘switch to something else’ – November 25, 2002
Fred Ibrahimi, the Steve Ballmer of Quark. I hope he lost millions.
Still, would be nice to see someone provide some true competition to raise Adobe out of its annoying, soporific ways. No-one ever accused Adobe of being customer-friendly, with interface problems in CS5.5 which were loudly complained about in version 1.
Marketing blahblah much?
“…have readied Quark to take an early leadership position in digital publishing,” said Raymond Schiavone, President and CEO at Quark.”
What company has in recent years been the worst laggard in digital publishing technology? Thus their being sold. Simple as that. 😛
Adobe now = old Quark.
Quark now = old Adobe (maybe).
Today I learned that Quark still existed. I thought Ibrahimi had run it into the ground a decade ago.
-jcr
Well, it looks like offshoring has destroyed Quark as well. The sure sign of death is selling the company off to another company or worse, VC jerks. Another once-great American company run into the ground by 3rd worlders. Thanks Alukah Kamar!
Actually, your so called 3rd worlder’s are the guy’s who kept Quark floating and brought it on the path back to growth after it was ruined by Fred Ibrahami and the senior team in Denver as well as the dev team over there. Quark would have been dead by 2006 if it wasn’t for the off shore team. Kamar himself was a puppet hired by Fred to do his bidding and Fred still controlled the company at the time. When Ray came in, he got people who quickly realized that all the real work gets done in the offshore offices and hence they got rid of most of the dev team in denver except for a few people who were again mostly from your so called third world countries. Last I know, Quark was doing decently well despite the economic downfall that had killed many others and there were even large customer accounts who had moved to adobe from quark, but quark had won them back again. The current acquisition by Platinum Equity is a sign of health and not a sign of death as every one seems to be thinking. The move was necessary since the company was still privately held and largely controlled by Fred and his daughter. Fred is a very rich man and he makes most of his money thought his business in real estate, not software. He can choose how much he wants to invest in quark at his whim. Its not healthy for the company and it would be in quark’s best interest if it ware acquired by someone who can invest with intent to allow the company to grow.
Wow, I live 50 miles from Denver and didn’t even know that Quark was still in business. We have hundreds of design customers, and no one that I know of uses Quark anymore.
I thought they died and went away.