Cox Enterprises to buy software firm OpenGov for $1.8B
Cox Enterprises, the global communications and automotive company, announced on Tuesday it will buy the government software firm OpenGov for $1.8 billion.
OpenGov’s enterprise resource planning software is used by about 1,900 state agencies and cities across the country for budgeting, accounting, procurement, asset management and permitting processes. Cox Enterprises, a giant in the cable industry, has been an minority investment partner in OpenGov for several years and hopes to help the company power “more effective and accountable government,” Cox CEO Alex Taylor said in a news release.
With the new deal, OpenGov’s management and employees will roll over a significant portion of their equity into the deal, and the company will be run by its existing leadership under the Cox umbrella, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
The WSJ also reports that OpenGov’s gross new sales increased by 76% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, fueled by the company’s 2022 deal to buy Cartegraph, which makes cloud software for public-agency operations and infrastructure-asset management.
In 2021, OpenGov acquired ProcureNow, adding the cloud service for government procurement and contract management to its offerings. This followed a 2019 announcement by OpenGov that it raised $51 million in funding, totaling $140 million raised since 2012.
“We started this company to power more effective and accountable government. We’ve grown thanks to outsized investments in engineering and customer success and because of an extraordinary team aligned on values, hard work, expertise, and passion,” Zac Bookman, co-founder and CEO of OpenGov, said in a news release. “With this investment, one of the largest in GovTech history, we intend to accelerate product development, advance our mission, and improve communities for generations.”
