Obviously achieves £40m exit to RWS Holdings plc.
Rockworth advises legal tech business on successful sale to listed AI solutions group.
Rockworth has acted as lead sell-side adviser to the shareholders of legal tech business Obviously, for its sale to RWS Holdings plc.
RWS acquired Obviously for an initial cash consideration of £16.5m. The deal also includes up to £23.5m million of contingent consideration payable over the next three financial years, taking total potential consideration to £40m.
Founded by lawyers Julius Stobbs and Lewis Whiting and computer science engineer Demetrio Filocamo, Obviously has developed an AI-powered platform that enables businesses to manage, protect and enforce their intellectual property and brand integrity in one place. The platform tracks brand assets, identifies threats such as counterfeits and copycats, and can quantify the commercial impact of infringement. Obviously has grown rapidly and built an impressive client base of well-known companies, spanning sectors including media and entertainment, technology, financial services, pharmaceuticals and sport.
AIM-listed RWS has evolved from origins as a patent and technical translation firm into a global AI solutions provider, with turnover of £690m and market capitalisation of around £350m. Its technology is used by global corporations to generate, translate and adapt content for different markets, as well as protecting intellectual property.
Obviously now sits within RWS’s ‘Protect’ segment. Combined with RWS’s existing capabilities, this creates a powerful platform for enterprise clients to create, localise, register, monitor and enforce their brands and IP across all the territories in which they operate.
The deal involved considerable complexity and was delivered to a highly demanding deadline, thanks to strong collaboration between buyer and seller, and the efforts of the legal team led by Mark Howard from Charles Russell Speechlys and the Rockworth team of Zuzana Valkovic and Lawrence Price.
Benjamin Faes, CEO of RWS, said: “The acquisition of Obviously is a significant step forward in accelerating our growth by pivoting to be a technology-first business with holistic solutions for enterprise clients. Obviously’s innovative integrated platform, which safeguards brands through IP & brand management, protection and enforcement intelligence, is a strong fit with both our existing patent-focused IP business and our localization capabilities.”
