Freight transportation management company Echo Global Logistics is being purchased by New York private equity firm The Jordan Co. in a deal valued at $1.3 billion.
Chicago-based Echo (Nasdaq: ECHO) said Jordan is paying $48.25 a share for the company, which is a 54% premium over Echo's closing stock price on Thursday. After the deal closes, Echo will become a private company "which it expects will provide additional resources and greater flexibility to continue to build its technology and data science platform and enhance its value proposition to shippers and carriers."
"Having an experienced financial partner, with resources to fund continued growth, will result in a more rapid expansion of Echo's supply chain capabilities, including all of the automation planned to enable both our people and our digital freight marketplace," said Doug Waggoner, Echo chairman and CEO, in a statement.
According to Echo, it "maintains a proprietary, web-based technology platform that compiles and analyzes data from its network of over 50,000 transportation providers to serve 35,000 clients across a wide range of industries and simplify the critical tasks involved in transportation management."
Echo has around 2,700 employees in 30 offices around the country. The company was founded in 2005 by Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell.
