AFS Technologies Inc. Completes the Acquisition of Distribution Management Systems Inc.; AFS Closes a $5.0 Million Financing with Merion Investment Partners, L.P.PHOENIX -- AFS A distributed file system for large, widely dispersed Unix and Windows networks from Transarc Corporation, now part of IBM. It is noted for its ease of administration and expandability and stems from Carnegie-Mellon's Andrew File System. AFS - Andrew File System Technologies Inc. ("AFS"), a leading provider of software solutions to the food industry, announced today that it had completed the acquisition of Distribution Management Systems Inc. ("DMS (1) (Document Management System) See document management. (2) (Defense Messaging System) An X.500-compliant messaging system developed by the U.S. Dept. of Defense. "), a Milford, Conn.-based provider of software solutions to the food and beverage F&B is a common abbreviation in the United States and Commonwealth countries, including Hong Kong. F&B is typically the widely accepted abbreviation for "Food and Beverage," which is the sector/industry that specializes in the conceptualization, the making of, and delivery of foods. industries, for cash and stock. With the acquisition, AFS now serves more than 230 customers, will employ more than 100 professionals, and will be headquartered in Phoenix, with an East Coast office in Milford, Conn., and a development facility in Bangalore, India. AFS also announced today that it had closed a $5.0 million financing, comprised of mezzanine mez·za·nine n. 1. A partial story between two main stories of a building. 2. The lowest balcony in a theater or the first few rows of that balcony. and equity capital, provided by Merion Investment Partners, L.P., a King of Prussia King of Prussia, industrialized suburban area (1990 pop. 18,406), Montgomery co., SE Pa. It has glass and steel fabricating, food processing, printing and publishing, and varied manufacturing (textiles, liquified petroleum gas, water-treatment and electrical , Pa.-based mezzanine capital Mezzanine capital (or mezzanine debt) is a broad financial term that refers to unsecured, high-yield, subordinated debt or preferred stock that represents a claim on a company's assets that is senior only to that of a company's shareholders. firm. A portion of the proceeds was used to facilitate the acquisition of DMS, and the remaining will be used for working capital purposes and possible further acquisitions. The Argentum Group ("Argentum"), a New York-based private equity firm, and AFS's majority shareholder, played an integral role in facilitating these transactions. "I am very pleased with the acquisition of DMS, as both companies complement each other well, in that AFS brings a substantial capital investment in the development of its .NET framework and DMS' management brings deep domain expertise in market segments that are new to AFS. Thus, DMS' customers will be offered broader product offerings on a leading-edge technology platform, and more process-oriented product development and customer support, ensuring high-quality deployments," said Kurien Jacob, AFS' CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. . "AFS now offers to the food and beverage industries the only solution that provides a complete suite of fully integrated software Separate software components or applications that have been combined into one package. See integrated software package. applications, utilizing a database independent design and a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA (1) (Start Of Authority) The first record in a DNS zone file. See DNS records. (2) (Service Oriented Architecture) The modularization of business functions for greater flexibility and reusability. )," Jacob added. "Merion is excited to have the opportunity to support the growth of AFS," said William Means, managing partner, Merion Investment Partners, L.P. "We believe the company has an excellent management team, and the best enterprise software solution for the food and beverage industries." "Our vision is to build a company that will become the premier software solutions provider to the food and beverage industries, and the acquisition of DMS clearly provides the scale needed, and will position AFS firmly on that path," said Walter Barandiaran, chairman of AFS and a managing partner of Argentum. About AFS Technologies Inc. AFS Technologies Inc. is a leading provider of fully-integrated, end-to-end business software solutions engineered exclusively for the food and beverage industries. The company serves more than 230 customers across North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. and the Caribbean, with innovative, comprehensive and user-friendly solutions designed to reduce costs, increase efficiency, streamline internal processes and assist in regulatory compliances. Solutions available include complete distribution and financials, vendor rebate tracking, warehouse management, Web order management, supply chain management, e-commerce, business intelligence, processing, and mobile sales & delivery products. For more information, please contact AFS Technologies via e-mail at info@afsi.com, by phone at 602-522-8282 or visit us on the Web at www.afsi.com. About Merion Investment Partners, L.P. Merion is the largest independent mezzanine fund A mezzanine fund is a type of private equity or merchant banking fund. A typical mezzanine investment consists of a debt or debt-like instrument, paired with an equity “sweetener. headquartered in Pennsylvania, and is focused on transactions ranging from $3-10 million to support organic growth, acquisitions, buyouts and generational transfer of ownership. Merion can function as a one-stop shop One-Stop Shop A company or a location that offers a multitude of services to a client or a customer. The idea is to provide convenient and efficient service and also to create the opportunity for the company to sell more products to clients and customers. to support smaller equity funds to round out their capital raise by providing both equity and debt, or as a coupon-only provider to larger funds in support of buyouts or acquisitions. Merion also seeks to work directly with entrepreneurs to support their acquisition strategies, as well as provide them with liquidity to diversify concentrated wealth in their companies. Visit us on the Web at www.merionpartners.com. About The Argentum Group The Argentum Group is a New York-based private equity firm that provides expansion capital to rapidly growing small and mid-sized businesses with market leading potential. Argentum targets those industries experiencing rapid growth or undergoing fundamental change in the areas of outsourced services, healthcare and technology. Argentum serves as general partner of investment partnerships with more than $400 million of capital under management. Since its founding in 1988, Argentum has invested in more than 100 companies, across a broad range of industries. For more information, please visit: www.argentumgroup.com. |
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