GI Partners to Acquire and Merge Consilio and Advanced Discovery

SAN FRANCISCO, March 21, 2018 – GI Partners, a leading private investment firm, announced today that it will acquire Consilio, a global leader in eDiscovery, document review, and legal consulting services, and Advanced Discovery, a global eDiscovery and risk management provider, and combine the two businesses. Upon completion of the transaction, the combined company will operate as an unparalleled global technology-enabled service platform and the #2 global leader in eDiscovery.

Advanced Discovery is expected to close in late March 2018. Consilio and the subsequent merger are expected to close in the second quarter of 2018, subject to usual and customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The combined company will consist of over 2,500 employees and operate more than 60 offices, review centers, and data centers spanning 11 countries. The company’s global operations will support large-scale, fast-moving matters that need to process, host, and review vast repositories of data. The full solutions suite will include information governance, risk management, eDiscovery, and document and contract review.

“This is an exciting and significant step for Consilio and Advanced Discovery to enhance our market leadership position as a global technology platform that will better serve our clients, offering them a broad suite of innovative solutions,” said Andy Macdonald, CEO of Consilio, who will continue as CEO of the combined company. “We are extremely pleased to partner with GI Partners, a firm that shares our guiding principles for delivering quality service to clients. We share an ongoing commitment to growing the combined company, both organically and through select acquisitions. We look forward to expanding our range of product technologies to support our growing customer needs anywhere in the world.”

Hoon Cho, Managing Director at GI Partners said, “We are pleased to be able to acquire and combine both businesses. Consilio and Advanced Discovery have complementary global operations and strong cultural fit. GI Partners’ successful history of investing in leading technology businesses will allow us to provide the tools and resources needed to support Andy and his team in driving accelerated growth.”

Jeff Sheu, Director at GI Partners said, “We are excited to partner with Andy and the combined company’s senior leadership team in this exciting new chapter together. Looking ahead, we plan to continue our focus on selectively expanding our service offerings, both organically and through acquisitions, to enhance the customer experience.”

The combined company represents the fourth platform investment in GI Partners Fund V, a $2.8 billion fund raised in 2017. Jefferies served as exclusive financial advisor and Paul Hastings acted as legal advisor to GI Partners. BlackArch Partners represented Advanced Discovery as its exclusive financial advisor. Harris Williams represented Consilio as its exclusive financial advisor.

About Consilio
Consilio is a global leader in eDiscovery, document review, and legal consulting services. Consilio supports multinational law firms and corporations using innovative software, cost-effective managed services, and deep legal and regulatory industry expertise. The company has extensive experience in litigation, HSR second requests, internal and regulatory investigations, eDiscovery, information governance and compliance, law department management, document review, contracts management, and legal analytics. ISO 27001 certified, the company operates offices and data centers across Europe, Asia, and North America. For more information, please visit www.consilio.com.

About Advanced Discovery
Advanced Discovery is an award-winning and leading global eDiscovery and risk management company, partnering with law firms and corporations since 2002. Advanced Discovery and its global family of companies, Altep, Millnet Document Services and Legal Placements Inc., offer a complete suite of solutions to clients around the globe, including eDiscovery, information governance, Riskcovery® and compliance risk assessment, cybersecurity, legal operations consulting, data forensics and investigations, paper discovery and digital printing, as well as legal recruiting and placement. The company employs leading professionals in the industry, applies defensible workflows and provides patented and industry-proven technology across all phases of the eDiscovery and risk management lifecycle. This devotion to excellence has earned Advanced Discovery inclusion in the Inc. 5000 Hall of Fame for being named to the fastest-growing companies list for six successive years and recognition as the highest-level Best in Service Relativity solutions partner for five consecutive years. For more information, please visit www.advanceddiscovery.com.

About GI Partners
GI Partners is a private investment firm based in San Francisco. The firm has raised $16 billion in capital from leading institutional investors across the globe. GI Partners' private equity team focuses on investments in the IT Infrastructure, Healthcare, Software, and Services sectors. For more information on GI Partners and its entire portfolio, please visit www.gipartners.com.