New Home for App Testing Platform HeadSpin

Montreal, Canada-based private equity firm PartnerOne has acquired app testing platform HeadSpin, whose founder was jailed for fraud earlier this year. PartnerOne has not disclosed details of the deal but suggested in a statement it had paid 'fair market value', denying rumours of a 'fire sale' price.

HeadSpin's platform combines automated and manual app testing options across various devices, with services including automation of the QA process, performance monitoring using synthetic data, and comparative analysis against peers. Benefits include enhanced debugging, continuous testing and performance monitoring, and the tool is used to optimise digital experiences and speed up development cycles.

HeadSpin was forced to restate its financials some four years ago, and returned up to $95m in funding to investors, after an internal review of irregularities. Rajeev Butani replaced CEO and co-founder Manish Lachwani, who was found to have dramatically inflated company revenues and was eventually sentenced in April this year to eighteen months in prison. In the meantime the firm had continued to attract substantial investment, securing a strategic investment fifteen months ago from Atlassian Ventures.

According to news site TechCrunch, the firm was last valued at $1.1bn in 2020, but had Annual Recurring Revenue of only around $20m. Reports that the acquisition price was 'probably between $20m and $40m' were countered by PartnerOne CFO Jonathan Dionne who told TechCrunch in a statement: 'The transaction price and terms were agreed to by the majority of the stockholders and debt holders, many of which are the largest tech companies in the world. There is no way that these major corporations would agree to sell a company for less than its fair market value'. Dionne said the HeadSpin management team now in place has worked 'to ensure that everything in relation to the previous CEO was corrected and made right, including returning money to investors that had been defrauded'.

Dionne said HeadSpin's customers had 'received news of the acquisition very favorably' and 'already begun expanding their use of its products'. The firm employs some 200 people and now has support from 'hundreds' of software engineers in Partner One companies. He added: 'Partner One never sells its companies, so HeadSpin now has a forever-home'.

Web site: www.headspin.io .