A Ritchie Bros. auctionRitchie Bros. announced it has completed its purchase of IronPlanet, a transaction valued at roughly $758.5 million and financed through a senior note offering and secured term loan facility.
The company announced plans for the acquisition last August and it was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division in May.
The deal also initiates a five-year alliance between Ritchie Bros. and Caterpillar aimed at strengthening the company’s relationship with Cat’s independent dealers worldwide with improved access to a global auction marketplace Ritchie Bros. will provide for used equipment.
Ritchie Bros. also continues its handling of Cat auctions “in respective Cat dealer geographies.”
“We are pleased that the acquisition of IronPlanet has been completed and I am delighted to welcome IronPlanet employees to the Ritchie Bros. family. Our shared passion for serving customers is loud and clear and it will continue to be our guiding light in the unified company,” says Ritchie Bros. CEO Ravi Saligram. “Our integration plans have been meticulously worked on during the last nine months: our combined senior management team will be in place Day 1 and our sales forces will be integrated within the first 30 days. In the second half of 2017, we will focus on aligning and unifying the company, optimizing the integration, starting to achieve synergies and getting the organization ready for a fast start in 2018 to deliver growth and add shareholder value.”
Included below is the organizational structure of management. Unless otherwise indicated, all leaders will report to Saligram.
Operational Leaders:
- Greg Owens, former CEO of IronPlanet, is named Group President, New Sectors & Ventures and will oversee all aspects of the Cat Strategic Alliance, GovPlanet and Kruse Energy. He will also explore ventures to enter new sectors and businesses, both organically and through acquisitions.
- Jim Barr, Group President, Multichannel Products & Technologies will lead all aspects of digital product development, online operations, digital marketing and provide strategic oversight to the technology group.
- Jeff Jeter, former President IronPlanet is named President, Sales U.S. and will lead the combined field and strategic accounts sales force.
- Brian Glenn is named SVP & Head of Sales, Canada and will lead both Western and Eastern Canadian field sales teams.
- Karl Werner will continue in his role as President, International and Jeroen Rijk will continue in his role as SVP & MD, Europe, with expanded responsibility for IronPlanet offerings.
Functional Leaders:
- Sharon Driscoll, CFO, Todd Wohler, CHRO, Darren Watt, SVP & General Counsel and Doug Olive, SVP, Pricing & Valuations will continue in their roles with added responsibilities for the combined company.
- Becky Alseth will assume the role of SVP, Brands & Innovation and focus on the evolution of all RB brands, value propositions, generating insights and leading marketing services, field marketing and seller marketing. Importantly, she will jump start a comprehensive innovation program throughout the company, initially focused on live auctions.
- Doug Feick will assume the role of SVP, Corporate Development and Integration Optimization. Doug will lead our M&A initiatives and in the near-term will lead on-going integration efforts.
- Kieran Holm, SVP, Operations Excellence & Efficiencies will focus on the acceleration of structural cost savings and efficiencies and proactively optimizing our site network. He will also assume added responsibility as the Synergies champion for the IP acquisition to ensure that synergy targets are achieved.
- Frank Roth will assume the role of SVP, Sales Effectiveness and will focus on enabling the sales force to drive solution selling, create operational rigor on the use of sales analytics and sales management tools and develop programs to drive growth and increase sales productivity.
- Marianne Marck, Chief Information Technology Officer, reporting to Jim Barr, will assume responsibility for leading and overseeing the Technology and Engineering teams across all of Ritchie Bros. including RBA, IronPlanet, Mascus, Xcira and RBFS. She will drive overall data and technology strategy to make IT a significant competitive advantage for the company. Jeff Barca-Hall will partner with Marianne as SVP & Chief Technology Officer and will lead efforts to build future state, cutting-edge Marketplace technologies and the consolidation of current platforms and offerings.
- Matt Ackley, SVP, Product Management and Digital Marketing, reporting to Jim Barr, will be responsible for on-line demand generation, buyer product marketing, product management, inside sales and on-line auction management.
- Randy Berry, SVP, Digital Operations, reporting to Jim Barr, will continue to lead IP Inspections, Operations and Asset Appraisal Services and assume responsibility for RBA online operations and the Customer Service Group.
The company will keeps its global headquarters in Vancouver, British Columbia, and IronPlanet’s headquarters in Pleasanton, California, will remain as a “keey technology hub.” Ritchie Bros. also plans to create a “small commercial hub” in the western suburbs of Chicago this fall.
