St. Louis firm buys Draper's Spot Business Systems LLC

Clearent, a St. Louis-based payments solution provider, has announced the purchase of Draper-based Spot Business Systems LLC, an independent software vendor serving customers in the dry-cleaning industry. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

{mprestriction ids="1,3"}Spot will become part of a newly created subsidiary, Clearent Software Holdings. Spot’s day-to-day operations remain unchanged and all current Spot employees will retain their positions after the sale, Clearant said in a release.

“We are excited to name Spot as the first acquisition in our new division, Clearent Software Holdings,” said Dan Geraty, CEO and founder of Clearent. “As a market leader servicing the dry-cleaning industry with an excellent history of customer service and retention, Spot will help us realize our vision: to be the most highly recommended payments solution provider in the industry.”

“We’ve considered acquisition offers from a number of potential buyers over the years, but we believe that joining the Clearent team is the best way to take the business solutions we’ve created at Spot to the next level,” said Mark Jones, director of operations for Spot. “With this acquisition, we will retain a high level of operational autonomy, which means our customers will enjoy the same level of service we offered prior to the sale. At the same time, we’ll have an opportunity to enhance our business offerings through a host of resources that Clearent has to offer, including their (telephone sales) group. This is a great day for Spot and our customers in the dry-cleaning industry.”

“We feel this acquisition demonstrates our company’s ability and desire to bring significant benefits to interested independent software vendors — including accelerated growth rates and increased capabilities — while preserving their operational freedom to do what they do best,” added Geraty. “Our philosophy of transparency in payments also applies to the way we engage in acquisitions. We hope with each purchase to enhance industry expertise, geographic coverage and product capabilities.”

Clearent is a full-service, payments solution provider with more than 300 employees, 45,000 merchants, and $14 billion in processing volume. Headquartered in St. Louis, Clearent also has offices in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Louisville, Kentucky.{/mprestriction}