Warburg Pincus, GS Capital Partners to Acquire Endurance International Group

NEW YORK and BURLINGTON, Mass., Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Warburg Pincus and GS Capital Partners, two leading global private equity investors, today announced that they have reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Endurance International Group ("Endurance " or the "Company"), a leading provider of hosting and online services to small- and medium-sized businesses, from Accel-KKR.   Endurance's current management team and Accel-KKR will continue to maintain an interest in the Company.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Since its founding in 1997, Endurance has grown to become one of the world's leading providers of hosting and related online services for small- and medium-sized businesses – providing web hosting accounts to over 1.9 million unique customers, managing more than 7.7 million domains and delivering over 5 million applications through its proprietary cloud-based infrastructure.  

Hari Ravichandran, Endurance's Founder and Chief Executive Officer said, "During the past 15 years, Endurance has built a great business by catering to the online needs of small- and medium-sized businesses.  We are delighted to welcome Warburg Pincus and GS Capital Partners as our investors and appreciate their strong vote of confidence in our business model.  We look forward to leveraging their deep technology expertise and strategic insight as we continue to innovate and grow in order to meet our customers' continuously expanding needs."

"We believe there is an enormous opportunity to build on Endurance's success," said Jim Neary, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus.  "We are excited about partnering with the Endurance management team as the Company continues its impressive growth trajectory."

GS Capital Partners' Managing Director, Joe DiSabato, added, "Endurance is extremely well positioned as a leader in its rapidly growing yet fragmented market, and we look forward to working with the Company, Warburg Pincus and Accel-KKR in the next stage of building this enterprise."    

"Endurance has built a terrific platform and we look forward to supporting its continued success. Hari and the team have been great partners over the years and we are pleased they have expanded the Company's shareholder base with these two world-class private equity firms," Ben Bisconti, Managing Director, Accel-KKR said.

Advisors

Credit Suisse acted as the financial advisor to Warburg Pincus and provided the debt financing for the transaction.  Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP acted as legal advisor to Warburg Pincus and Goodwin Proctor LLP acted as legal advisor to GS Capital Partners.  Morgan Stanley served as financial advisor and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to Endurance and Accel-KKR.

About Endurance International Group

A leading provider of web hosting and online services to small and medium-sized business, Endurance manages over 1.9 million unique web hosting accounts and more than 7.7 million domain names.  The diversity of its brands has enabled the Company to grow tremendously through both organic channels and strategic acquisitions.  Over time, Endurance has maintained its focus on providing the combination of a superior customer experience with a commitment to offering reliable and affordable solutions.

About Warburg Pincus

Warburg Pincus is a leading global private equity firm. The firm has more than $30 billion in assets under management. Its active portfolio of more than 125 companies is highly diversified by stage, sector and geography. Warburg Pincus is a growth investor and an experienced partner to management teams seeking to build durable companies with sustainable value.  Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has raised 13 private equity funds which have invested more than $40 billion in over 650 companies in more than 30 countries.  Since inception, the firm has invested more than $13.5 billion in technology, media and telecommunications including investments in BEA Systems, BhartiAirtel, Covad Communications Group, FIS, Institutional Shareholder Services, iParadigms Holdings LLC, MLM Information Services LLC, NeuStar, Nuance Communications, RDA Microelectronics Inc, UGS Capital Corp., VERITAS Software, Wall Street Systems and Ziggo.  The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in Amsterdam, Beijing, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Mumbai, San Francisco, Sao Paulo and Shanghai. For more information, please visit www.warburgpincus.com.

About GS Capital Partners

Since 1986, the Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division and its predecessor business areas have raised 16 private equity and principal debt investment funds aggregating over $82 billion of capital (including leverage).  GS Capital Partners VI is the current private equity vehicle through which Goldman Sachs conducts its large, privately negotiated, corporate equity investment activities.  A global leader in private corporate equity investing, GS Capital Partners is a family of funds with a focus on investing in large, high quality companies with strong management and funding acquisitions or expansion across a range of industries and geographies.  Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm that provides a wide range of financial services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and high-net-worth individuals.  For more information, please visit www.gs.com/pia.

About Accel-KKR

Accel-KKR is a technology-focused private equity firm with over $1.3 billion in assets under management.  The firm invests primarily in software and IT-enabled businesses well positioned for top-line and bottom-line growth. At the core of Accel-KKR's investment strategy is a commitment to developing strong partnerships with the management teams of its portfolio companies and a focus on building value through the significant resources available through the Accel-KKR network. Accel-KKR has a particular focus on buyouts and recapitalizations of family-owned or closely-held private companies, going-private transactions and divisional buyouts of larger companies. For more information, please visit www.accel-kkr.com.

Media Contacts

For Endurance:
Jean McCarthy
781.852.3242

For Warburg Pincus:
Ed Trissel / Jeff Smith
212.878.9288 / 212.878.9205

For GS Capital Partners:
Andrea Raphael
212.357.0025

For Accel-KKR:
Todd Fogarty
Kekst and Company
212-521-4854
[email protected]

SOURCE Endurance International Group