Data Processing Resources Corporation (Nasdaq: DPRC) was a leading national provider of IT Services.
Acquisition Search Mandate
The principals of GPI were retained by DPRC to function as an outsourced corporate development team. At the time, DPRC was a $58 million private IT staffing company operating solely in California. Management's plan called for building a national IT staffing and solutions company with high growth specialty practices.
Execution
Management initially focused our search efforts around geographical expansion. We researched over 4,000 companies of which over 750 met their acquisition criteria. Over the course of four years, we identified 110 owners interested in discussing the sale of their business. We visited over 50 targets and advised DPRC on the acquisitions of Professional Software Consultants in Phoenix, Arizona, Leardata Info-Services in Dallas, Texas and Vista High-Tech Resources in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. A year later, DPRC expanded our search mandate to build a specialty practice centered around ERP. We researched over 500 companies to identify over 60 that met DPRC's expanded acquisition criteria. GPI advised DPRC in acquiring Computec International and IT Services, two of the largest independent ERP companies in the United States.
Summary
DPRC's acquisitions provided the foundation upon which management achieved the goals set out in their plan: to become a leading national provider of IT services. The Company went public and achieved over 30% CAGR in earnings per share in each of its three years as a public company. Two and half years after their IPO, DPRC was acquired in a friendly transaction by Compuware (Nasdaq: CPWR) for $449 million.