CELEX: 32022M10554
Language: en
Date: 2022-01-12 00:00:00
Title: Commission Decision of 12/01/2022 declaring a concentration to be compatible with the common market (Case No COMP/M.10554 - BLACKSTONE / FRANCISCO PARTNERS / RENAISSANCE) according to Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (Only the English text is authentic)

EUROPEAN COMMISSION
                                                                 Brussels, 12.1.2022
                                                                 C(2022) 281 final
                                                                                 PUBLIC VERSION
                                                                 Blackstone Inc.
                                                                 345 Park Avenue
                                                                 NY 10154 – New York
                                                                 United States of America
                                                                 Francisco Partners
                                                                 One Letterman Drive, Building C,
                                                                 Suite 410
                                                                 94129- San Francisco, California
                                                                 United States of America
Subject:        Case M.10554 - BLACKSTONE / FRANCISCO PARTNERS /
                RENAISSANCE
                Commission decision pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of Council Regulation
                (EC) No 139/20041 and Article 57 of the Agreement on the European
                                    2
                Economic Area
Dear Sir or Madam,
1.      On 10 December 2021, the European Commission received notification of a proposed
        concentration pursuant to Article 4 of the Merger Regulation by which Blackstone,
        Inc. (“Blackstone”, USA), and Francisco Partners Management, L.P. (“Francisco
        Partners”, USA), acquire within the meaning of Articles 3(1)(b) and 3(4) of the
        Merger Regulation joint control over the whole of RL AcquisitionCo, Inc.
        (“Renaissance”, USA) by way of purchase of shares.3
2.      The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:
             Blackstone is a global asset manager active across a wide range of asset classes
              including, among others, private equity, real estate and public debt and equity,
              growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real estate assets and
              secondary funds,
1       OJ L 24, 29.1.2004, p. 1 (the ‘Merger Regulation’). With effect from 1 December 2009, the Treaty on
        the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) has introduced certain changes, such as the
        replacement of ‘Community’ by ‘Union’ and ‘common market’ by ‘internal market’. The terminology
        of the TFEU will be used throughout this decision.
2       OJ L 1, 3.1.1994, p. 3 (the ‘EEA Agreement’).
3       Publication in the Official Journal of the European Union No C 509, 17.12.2021, p. 20.
Commission européenne, DG COMP MERGER REGISTRY, 1049 Bruxelles, BELGIQUE
Europese Commissie, DG COMP MERGER REGISTRY, 1049 Brussel, BELGIË
Tel: +32 229-91111. Fax: +32 229-64301. E-mail: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu.
 ---pagebreak---        Francisco Partners is a private equity firm exclusively focused on investments in
        technology and technology-enabled businesses, and
       Renaissance provides software targeted at the primary and post-primary education
        sector, as well as cloud-based software and workflow tools enabling teachers to
        teach more efficiently.
3. After examination of the notification, the European Commission has concluded that
   the notified operation falls within the scope of the Merger Regulation and of
   paragraph 5(a) and 5(b) of the Commission Notice on a simplified procedure for
   treatment of certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004.4
4. For the reasons set out in the Notice on a simplified procedure, the European
   Commission has decided not to oppose the notified operation and to declare it
   compatible with the internal market and with the EEA Agreement. This decision is
   adopted in application of Article 6(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation and Article 57 of
   the EEA Agreement.
                                                   For the Commission
                                                   (Signed)
                                                   Olivier GUERSENT
                                                   Director-General
4  OJ C 366, 14.12.2013, p. 5.
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