2018 Legal Awards

Acquisition International - 2018 Legal Awards 17 1 Ashfords LLP Advise Leading VC Investors On $350m Sale Of NewVoiceMedia To Vonage National lawfirm Ashfords LLP NVM was one of the earliest companies to provide pure-play cloud-based contact centre solutions and quickly earned a reputation as an industry leader, becoming one of the largest privately-owned software as a service (SaaS) companies worldwide. Listed in the Forbes Cloud 100 for three consecutive years, NVM is also noted as a leader in the Gartner Contact Centre as a Service Magic Quadrant. Its clients include household names, such as Adobe, Siemens, JustGiving, Time Inc and Rapid7. The acquisition of NVM will allow Vonage to offer a wider range of services and enhance end-to-end communication experiences for a company’s employees and customers. The Ashfords team, led by corporate partner Chris Dyson, had previously advised institutional investment funds on over $100m of investment into NVM. Chris Dyson said: “It has been exciting to track the impressive growth of NewVoiceMedia since its initial funding and see it establish itself as a pioneer in the sector, supported by leading investors. The confidence shown by our clients in consistently backing the company has been realised by this high-profile deal, which is a landmark move for both NVM and Vonage.” Ian Milbourn, Partner at Notion Capital commented: “Ashfords have provided Notion with consistently great service, supporting on our first investment into NewVoiceMedia in 2010, on subsequent rounds and the eventual sale. Their fantastic sector knowledge and pragmatic approach to negotiation have proven invaluable. The NVM sale process was run on a short timescale and Ashfords stepped up, working through the nights to get the deal done. It’s been a pleasure working with them on this journey.” Mark Caroe, Partner at Eden Ventures said: “We’ve worked closely with the Ashfords team for many years across our portfolio, including on investment rounds and the subsequent sale of NewVoiceMedia. Ashfords provided us with the excellent support we have come to expect from their team - their market knowledge and commercial advice are second to none.” Simon Calver, Head of Investments at BGF Ventures added: “Ashfords’ ongoing support for BGF Ventures in this NewVoiceMedia transaction was excellent. Chris and the team at Ashfords were very responsive and worked tirelessly to get the deal over the line despite the challenges and time differences with many overseas parties.” National law firm Ashfords LLP has advised leading venture capital funds Notion Capital, Eden Ventures and BGF Ventures on the $350m sale of cloud service company NewVoiceMedia (NVM) to New York Stock Exchange-listed Vonage.