Hg, one of Europe’s leading private equity firms focusing on software and technology, has announced the acquisition of OneStream Software (OneStream).
OneStream offers a unified platform that supports multiple CPM processes and information streams across the enterprise and is, together with Oracle, SAP, and CCH Tagetik, one of the leading solutions for financial consolidation and group accounting in the large enterprise segment.
In July 2024, OneStream had its IPO on the American Nasdaq. The acquisition means that the company will return to private ownership after only 17 months on the stock exchange.
Hg (formerly Hg Capital) is already invested in several companies in the data & analytics market, several of which have a particular focus on CPM. These include:
This is another “take private” deal in the software sector, in which a specialized private equity investor buys back a company from public trading that it considers to be undervalued on the stock market.
In 2022, PE firm Thoma Bravo acquired Anaplan, one of the world’s leading CPM providers focusing at that time on corporate planning (financial consolidation has been added in 2024), for more than USD 10 billion and took the company off the stock market ; in 2016, reporting specialist Qlik was taken off the stock market by Thoma Bravo in a similar transaction for USD 3 billion.
The purchase price of USD 6.4 billion for OneStream corresponds to a revenue multiple of 13 based on the published 2024 revenues of USD 489 million, or approximately 10-11 based on the revenue estimate for 2025. The revenue multiple is significantly lower compared to the Anaplan acquisition in 2022 with comparable revenues and earnings: At that time, a multiple of approximately 17 was paid, which reflected the even higher valuations of cloud-based subscription models at that time.
OneStream had pursued an aggressive growth strategy over the past two years, sacrificing short-term profitability in the process: a near doubling of sales and marketing expenses and a near tripling of R&D expenses were offset by over 40% revenue growth, which came at the cost of a significant loss. As a result, OneStream has grown at a rate well above the average for the CPM market.
The high valuation underscores the attractiveness of the data & analytics software segment in general and the CPM market in particular. In the context of the often-discussed question of the possible overvaluation of American tech stocks, this is a clear counterstatement from one of the leading PE companies.
While the average revenue multiple of Nasdaq 100 companies is currently around 6.8, cloud data platform provider such as Databricks (valued at roughly 28x revenue in its December 2025 investment round) and Snowflake (16.7x, publicly traded) command significantly higher multiples, largely driven by the AI boom.. This highlights that AI-related momentum has substantially inflated valuations for data-centric SaaS providers, whereas the CPM segment has so far been far less affected by this trend.
In its previous acquisitions, Hg has not been known to take a highly aggressive approach toward existing customers (price increases, tightening of license terms). Likewise, Hg has not exerted much pressure on its portfolio companies to harmonize their product portfolios or go-to-market organizations, something that typically slows down the pace of product innovation temporarily.
In addition, the overlap between the target groups of the portfolio companies is not as great as it might appear at first glance, due to the stronger focus of the other CPM solutions on small and medium-sized enterprises (Prophix, Lucanet, insightsoftware) or different regions (e.g. Europe & Asia vs. North America).
Overall, we therefore view the acquisition as neutral to positive from the customer’s perspective: the absence of the quarterly pressure typical for public companies and Hg’s track record as a steady-handed investor with a long-term perspective should have a positive impact on OneStream’s further development.
In general, the CPM market remains highly attractive and therefore highly valued. Growth drivers such as the renewal and flexibilization of enterprise planning systems, the replacement of legacy financial consolidation systems, and the expansion of solutions to supplementary use cases such as ESG, tax, risk management, and others continue to offer providers excellent growth opportunities. In addition, the AI wave is bringing further momentum to the market – although, as various recent BARC market studies show, adoption in CPM has been very low to date.
Stefan Sexl is a BARC Fellow specializing in CPM, BI and reporting. With 30 years of industry experience with leading vendors such as MIS AG, pmOne and Tagetik, he advises vendors on marketing, sales and product strategy as well as end customers on the selection and implementation of solutions.
He has a particular focus on the market for CPM and group accounting solutions including planning, consolidation, ESG, account reconciliation and other components.
Kelley Lynn Kassa is a seasoned marketing executive specializing in Corporate Performance Management, with more than 20 years of experience in marketing and communications in software and advisory services. She has held key roles at Applix, IBM, Varicent, and Datawatch, and BPM Partners, and for the past 13 years has provided marketing thought leadership content and programs for Revelwood—an implementation partner for IBM Planning Analytics, Workday Adaptive Planning, BlackLine, and Incorta.
An accomplished writer, Kelley has contributed to MIT Sloan Executive Education’s Innovation at Work blog, Foodies of New England magazine, and a wide range of clients over the years. She is recognized for her ability to translate technical detail into big-picture stories and turn complex data into clear, actionable insights.
Beyond her professional work, Kelley has held volunteer leadership roles with several community organizations, including the Irish Immigration Center and the Charitable Irish Society. She is also an active rower, coxswain, and coach at Community Rowing, Inc.
Dr. Christian Fuchs is a Senior Analyst and Head of Data & Analytics Research at BARC. He is the author of numerous BARC studies as well as a sought-after speaker at conferences. His areas of expertise are decision support information systems in corporate performance management (CPM), planning, consolidation and analytics front ends.
As a consultant, he supports companies in the software selection process and in the implementation phase as well as with strategic questions regarding tool portfolios, architecture and usage scenarios.
