"We've been looking for investment partners for quite some time," said Trisha Cooke, Mxi's director of marketing, in an interview with OBJ.
"We've been talking with a range of folks ... this made sense for us. It was not an overnight thing."
The transaction price was not disclosed, but Moelis says on its website that it prefers to make investments of between US$20 million and US$60 million.
Prior to the acquisition, Mxi was largely held by a group of employee shareholders, including the company founders, according to Ms. Cooke. As a private company, it does not disclose revenues or profits.
Current Mxi CEO Dave Seibel will maintain his position, as will other senior managers. Mxi will remain in Ottawa as an independent operating unit with all of its 200 employees staying on board.
In association with the acquisition, Mxi announced that Moelis managing partner Kurt Larsen, partner Greg Share and principal Jim Johnston will join the company's board of directors.
Moelis was founded in 2007 and is the private equity business affiliated with investment banking firm Moelis & Co. It manages more than $700 million worth of private equity, according to the company's website.
The New York-based firm's portfolio focuses on health care services, consumer goods and services, as well as business and industrial services, which includes the aerospace and defence sector.
The acquisition comes just as Mxi prepares to make a hefty payment to another Ottawa company.
In March, the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered Mxi to pay $12.3 million in damages to GasTops after several Mxi employees, who previously worked for GasTops, were found in breach of their fiduciary duty, breach of confidence and breach of employment contract.
The judge also awarded pre-judgment interest of $3.3 million with costs, on a full indemnity basis of $4.3 million.
The financial penalties were initially set in 2009 by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, which found that several employees left GasTops in 1996 to start Mxi Technologies - their own business in aviation maintenance software.
GasTops, the Superior Court stated, lost much of its business as a result of the situation, where Mxi employees portrayed their firm as a spin-off of the older one.
In a separate announcement Tuesday, Mxi said it would not pursue further appeal avenues, marking an end to the litigation that had preoccupied the firms for nearly 16 years.
"We are happy to be closing this chapter in Mxi's history and moving forward in building our business," said Mr. Seibel in a statement.
Ms. Cooke said "a lot of things came together at once" and that the takeover gave the company "a new lease on life."
"We want to start a new chapter in Mxi's history and put this behind us and focus on growing the business," Ms. Cooke said.
"Sometimes it's not about what's right or wrong. This is what was right for the business."
.jpg)
