Broadridge Financial Solutions (BR) announced Wednesday that it had agreed to purchase Emerald Connect LLC for $60 million in cash from StoneRiver Group (the former Fiserv Insurance Solutions company), which is owned by Fiserv Inc. and the private equity firm Stone Point Capital.
Emerald, founded in 1986 as a seminar marketing firm by Craig Faulkner, who now runs Faulkner Publishing, has built its seminar business over the years into providing print newsletter services and additional marketing tools for advisors, including websites, seminars, email and direct mail services and social media.
Emerald will be integrated into Broadridge’s Forefield operations, which creates compliance-approved content similar to Emerald.
In a statement, Broadridge’s president for Investor Communication Solutions (ICS), Robert Schifellite, said the Emerald-Forefield offerings will take advantage of the growth in independent advisors to “reach nearly 100,000 advisors” and will allow Broadridge to “deliver additional practice management and productivity tools to these financial professionals.”
In December 2010, Broadridge acquired Forefield, a Worcester, Mass.-based firm founded by Ronald Newton and led by longtime CEO Brent Delehey and President Bill Davenport. Broadridge paid $19.6 million for Forefield. Davenport remains the general manager of Forefield, and James Walsh continues to run its editorial operations.