by Jim Lundy

eOriginal one of the pioneers of advanced DTM solutions, such as eSignature, digital loans, and asset management, announced that it is being sold to Wolters Kluwer for $279.8 million (231 million euros). The deal was announced via press release. This blog analyzes some of the reasons for the sale.

Analysis

The deal represents a 7.45x revenue multiple and represents current demand and future potential that eOriginal’s solutions are delivering to the market. eOriginal has seen strong growth over the last few years under the leadership of CEO Brian Madocks. It has emerged as the premier provider of digital loan origination solutions, and has strong partnerships with DTM providers such as DocuSign.

The Digital Transaction Management (DTM) Market Growth

The DTM market has seen significant growth and eOriginal has benefited from both the demand and the makeover of their offerings under the leadership of CEO Brian Madocks. Nearly every DTM provider has seen growth this year. (Note: Aragon is actually upping its market forecast for DTM in its new DTM Market Forecast coming in January).

Digital transaction management companies are in an expanding market that Wolters Kluwer is making a move on.

Who Is Wolters Kluwer?

Wolters Kluwer is a 173 year old services firm that has several business units—in health, tax and accounting, compliance, and legal. The governance risk and compliance unit of Wolters Kluwer is making the deal. It hopes to form a combined digital solution to lending by leveraging its existing compliance offerings with the eOriginal solution. 

Why Was eOriginal for Sale?

eOriginal was a pioneer in eSignature and loan origination as well as the ongoing management of loans—what we call Advanced digital transaction management. eOriginal took outside investment of 26.6 million in 2016 and that funded both R&D and sales and marketing, which led to growth and the sale to Wolters Kluwer, an ongoing partner of eOriginal. 

Bottom Line

The market potential for DTM is substantial and more enterprises are looking to DTM providers to automate their transactions. Though what this means for eOriginal competitors remains to be seen. eOriginal follows on other recent acquisitions, such as Dropbox buying HelloSign. In 2021 expect to see even more M&A on the digital transaction management market.

Related Research:

The Aragon Research Technology Arc™ for Digital Transaction Management and Enterprise Content, 2020

The Aragon Research Globe™ for Digital Transaction Management, 2020