BlackLine Acquires Runbook

LOS ANGELES and LONDON – Sept. 1, 2016 – BlackLine, a leading provider of financial controls and automation solutions that enable Continuous Accounting, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Runbook, a Europe-based provider of financial close and automation solutions to the SAP market. The decision further solidifies BlackLine’s position as a leading provider of software solutions to automate and control the entire financial close process for SAP customers worldwide, and also supports the company’s ongoing European expansion strategy.

 

The acquisition of Runbook extends BlackLine’s Continuous Accounting platform to drive greater automation on behalf of all of its customers worldwide. Runbook’s SAP solutions complement BlackLine – merging financial quality assurance with financial automation and accelerating BlackLine’s innovative strategy for transforming Finance & Accounting (F&A).

 

“Runbook is an important investment in our future, an alignment that makes BlackLine stronger on behalf of our respective customers,” Therese Tucker, BlackLine CEO, said. “Runbook’s financial close automation software solutions serve some of the largest SAP organisations in the world. The company brings a wealth of talent, technology and SAP integration and execution knowledge to BlackLine, broadening our Continuous Accounting platform by adding complementary technologies. Together, we are equipped to solve the financial close management challenges faced by CFOs around the world.”

 

Tucker added, “This move is part of our larger plan to deliver deeper automation across the full range of F&A processes and enterprise platforms, including more than 40 leading ERP systems.”

 

Runbook co-founders Herman Heller and Rob Leesberg will continue to contribute their extensive experience and expertise as part of the BlackLine management team. “We are excited to join forces with an important market leader in the financial and accounting automation space.  Throughout the years, we have had nothing but the greatest respect for BlackLine as a highly innovative organisation and leader in this growing market,” said Heller, Runbook CEO. “By uniting our SAP expertise with BlackLine’s cloud knowledge, we believe we are a much stronger company going forward.”

 

Gartner recently recognised BlackLine as a Leader in the 2016 Financial Corporate Performance Management (FCPM) Magic Quadrant. Runbook also has been described as “best-of-breed” by Gartner.

 

Tennenbaum Capital Partners and certain of its funds acted as Agent for the senior credit facility issued to support the acquisition.

 

BlackLine is a provider of cloud-based solutions for Finance & Accounting (F&A) that centralise and streamline financial close operations and other key F&A processes for midsize and large organisations.  Designed to complement ERP and other financial systems, the BlackLine Finance Controls & Automation Platform increases operational efficiency, real-time visibility, control and compliance to ensure end-to-end financial close management, fuelling confidence throughout the entire accounting cycle.

 

BlackLine’s mission is to continuously improve the quality, accuracy and efficiency of Finance & Accounting by centralising key functions within a single, unified cloud platform.  Enabling customers to move beyond outdated processes and point solutions to a Continuous Accounting model, in which real-time automation, controls and period-end tasks are embedded within day-to-day activities, BlackLine helps companies achieve Modern Finance status, ensuring more accurate and insightful financial statements and a more efficient financial close.  More than 1,500 companies with users in approximately 120 countries around the world trust BlackLine to ensure balance sheet integrity and confidence in their financial statements.

 

BlackLine is recognised by Gartner as a Leader in its 2016 Magic Quadrant for Financial Corporate Performance Management (FCPM) Solutions and as a pioneer of the Enhanced Financial Controls & Automation (EFCA) software

category.

 

Based in Los Angeles, BlackLine also has regional headquarters in London, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, please visit www.blackline.com

 

Tennenbaum Capital Partners, LLC ("TCP") is an alternative investment management firm focused on direct lending for middle-market companies. TCP lends primarily to companies with established market positions, strong

regional or national operations, differentiated products and services and sustainable competitive advantages, investing across industries in which it has significant knowledge and expertise.  TCP manages funds and accounts on behalf of global institutional investors. It also manages a publicly-traded business development company, TCP Capital Corp (NASDAQ: TCPC). Since its founding, TCP has invested more than $16.5 billion in over 450 companies. TCP is headquartered in Los Angeles with additional offices in New York and San Francisco.

 

# # #