Marlin & Associates Advises Bain Capital Ventures on One of the Year's Most Significant Healthcare Technology Transactions

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Mar 8, 2013) - Marlin & Associates, the boutique investment bank and strategic advisory firm announced today that Marlin's client, Bain Capital Ventures' portfolio company, ABILITY® Network Inc., a market-leading healthcare technology company, has entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Stamford, CT-based IVANS®, the largest provider of secure insurance data communication services to the US healthcare and Property & Casualty Insurance community -- trusted by more than 350 insurance carrier customers and 30,000 independent agents nationwide. The press release can be read here.

Ability also has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the Property and Casualty business of IVANS to Applied Systems Inc., a leading provider of insurance software. ABILITY and Applied Systems are portfolio companies of Bain Capital Ventures and Bain Capital, respectively.

Marlin & Associates acted as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Bain Capital Ventures, the venture and growth capital affiliate of Bain Capital, one of the world's leading private, alternative asset management firms, with approximately $65 billion in assets under management worldwide. 

"This is one of the healthcare industry's most exciting transactions in years. This combination will significantly benefit the industry and can address and reduce the administrative complexity of connecting payors and providers," said Afsaneh Naimollah, Partner at Marlin & Associates.

The merger is expected to close within 90 days, subject to standard closing conditions.

Marlin & Associates is one of the most active investment banking and strategic advisory firms providing strategic and financial advice to worldwide buyers and sellers of middle-market technology firms.

This is the fourth significant recent transaction in the healthcare technology sector on which M&A has advised. In February 2012, Marlin advised NaviNet, the nation's largest real-time healthcare communication network on its acquisition by Lumeris Corporation, the innovative, cloud-based health IT provider; Pittsburgh-based, Highmark Inc., Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon), and southeastern Pennsylvania's Independence Blue Cross (IBC).

Marlin & Associates is headquartered in New York, NY and has additional offices in San Francisco, CA; Washington, DC; Toronto, Canada; and Hong Kong, China serving companies that provide information and technology to a wide range of communities including those that serve the banking, capital markets, insurance, marketing and healthcare arenas.

About Marlin & Associates

Marlin & Associates Holding LLC is a boutique investment banking and strategic advisory firm specializing in acquisitions and divestitures of U.S. and international middle-market firms that provide technology, digital information and healthcare-related products, technology and services. The firm is headquartered in New York, NY and has additional offices in San Francisco, CA; Washington, DC; Toronto, Canada; and Hong Kong, China. Further information can be read at www.MarlinLLC.com.

Marlin & Associates Securities LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marlin & Associates Holding LLC, is a broker-dealer registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is a FINRA/SIPC member firm (www.finra.org). Investment banking and/or securities are offered through Marlin & Associates Securities LLC. Marlin & Associates' professionals have advised on more than 200 successfully completed transactions.

Some recent clients that Marlin & Associates has advised include:

• Bain Capital Ventures' portfolio company ABILITY Network Inc. of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which Marlin & Associates advised on its merger with IVANS;
• SR Labs, LLC of New York City, which Marlin & Associates advised on its $53M capital raise from Insight Venture Partners;
• Knovel Inc. of New York City, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to Reed Elsevier PLC (LSE: REL);
• Xcitek Solutions Plus, LLC (XSP) of Birmingham, Alabama, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to SunGard Data Systems Inc.;
• DMLT LLC (dba Investment Café) of Tampa, Florida, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to eFront, a portfolio company of Francisco Partners;
• Correlix of New York, NY and Tel Aviv, Israel, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to TS-Associates Hamilton, Bermuda;
• Ideas International Ltd. (ASX: IDE) of Hornsby, Australia, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to Gartner (NYSE: IT);
• Coalition Development Ltd. of London, UK, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to CRISIL, a subsidiary of McGraw-Hill (NYSE: MHP);
• IMS Research of Wellingborough, UK, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to IHS Inc.;
• NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) of New York, NY, which Marlin & Associates advised on its acquisition of a strategic shareholding in Fixnetix;
• Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe of New York, NY, which Marlin & Associates advised on its acquisition of a majority interest in Triple Point Technology;
• Atrium Network of London, UK, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to TMX Group (TSX: X);
• NYSE Euronext (NYSE: NYX) of New York, NY, which Marlin & Associates advised on its acquisition of Metabit (Tokyo, Japan);
• Subserveo, Inc. of Vancouver, Canada, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to DST Systems, Inc. (NYSE: DST);
• NaviNet, Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts, which Marlin & Associates advised on its acquisition of Prematics;
• Qatarlyst of Doha, Qatar, which Marlin & Associates advised on its acquisition of London-based RI3K;
• SMARTS Group of Sydney, Australia, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to NASDAQ OMX (NASDAQ: NDAQ);
• SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) of Brussels, Belgium, which Marlin & Associates advised on its acquisition of Ambit Messaging Hub from SunGard;
• Avox of Wrexham Wales, UK, a majority-owned company of Deutsche Börse (ETR: DB1), which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC); and
• Strategic Analytics of Santa Fe, New Mexico, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ: VRSK).