Epicor Spinning off Retail Business
Big changes are under way at Epicor Software, a provider of ERP, CRM and other types of business software, which just announced plans to spin off its Retail Solutions business into a separate, privately-held company.
Few details are available about the spinoff, which is being funded by private equity investment firm Apax Partners, which owns Epicor. Austin, Texas-based Epicor is calling the new company “SpinCo” until the transaction is finalized.
Noel Goggin, who currently serves as executive vice president and general manager of Epicor's Retail Solutions business, will continue to lead the new company and will report to Joe Cowan, Epicor's CEO and president.
“SpinCo will be uniquely positioned to bring advanced technology and entrepreneurial innovation into today’s fast-paced environment of global retail,” said Goggin in a statement.
Epicor also is proposing a debt offering of $2.1 billion, to raise funds to refinance the company’s outstanding $1.3 billion in debt obligations, refinance $400 million of notes and fund a dividend distribution to shareholders.
The completion of the debt refinance and related spinoff transaction are both expected to take place in June 2015, according to Epicor.
Epicor acquired two retail software specialists in the past six months. In January it acquired ShopVisible, a provider of retail order management and digital commerce software, in an effort to beef up its omni-channel capabilities. And in November it purchased QuantiSense, a provider of retail cloud analytics that counts Urban Outfitters, Burlington Coat Factory and Hallmark among its customers.
Executive Changes
Epicor also announced several executive changes made to further its objective of centralizing global support and product development.
- Craig McCollum, who has served as executive vice president and general manager of Epicor's Retail Distribution business, will become EVP for Americas, a new unit that will combine Retail Distribution with the company's ERP Americas business.
- Ian Ashby, who led the support function for ERP in the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions, will now assume responsibility for the company's global support operations.
- Jeff Kissling, who has 30-plus years of application development experience with companies including JDA Software and Interwoven, will become Epicor's first CTO.
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