One Equity Partners acquires 3M's Library Systems Business

Frankfurt, October 6th 2015 – Funds advised by OEP Capital Advisors, L.P. (OEP) have closed on the acquisition of assets of the North American Library Systems business of 3M. OEP also announced that it has entered into agreements with 3M to purchase the assets of its remaining global Library Systems business.

3M’s Library Systems business delivers circulation management solutions to library customers with on-premise hardware and software, maintenance and service. The business includes a system that enables library patrons to check out books at a self-serve kiosk and provides RFID (radio frequency identification) technology.

The library market is a growing market with an increasing demand for automatization and efficiency improvements as well as for easy-to-use digital and mobile solutions. Disruptive technology changes will also have an impact on the library sector and call for a strategy to fully capture the opportunities of the digital transformation. 3M‘s Library Systems business includes a cloud-based lending platform, that gives patrons easy access to a huge array of digital books at their local library and can be downloaded to a tablet, smartphone or personal computer. It is an important asset to face the structural change the education and library industry is undergoing.

“As a single source provider for tech-enabled library services, 3M’s Library Systems will allow us to deepen our presence in the education and library sector and broaden our product offerings in end-to-end automation solutions for public, private and academic libraries,” said Jörg Zirener, a Managing Director of OEP. “OEP is committed to investing in and growing this business, so that the industry will continue to benefit from its presence and innovation in the library market.”

The remaining purchase of assets is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015 subject to customary closing conditions and consultation or information requirements with relevant works counsels.