Dan Rudich, senior vice president, rTEM, Montreal (Photo: Richmond Lam) When is the right time to sell your business? According to Dan Rudich, you'll know.
In 2009, Rudich and Jaan Leemet founded Anomalous Networks, a provider of software that allows companies to monitor and control mobile-device usage to counter "bill shock." Less than a year in, they caught the eye of Bell Mobility, which signed on as the exclusive distributor of Anomalous's business solution in Canada. Signing such a high-profile client early on gave the Montreal-based startup steady revenue and instant credibility in the massive telecom market.
So much credibility, in fact, that within two years Anomalous received a serious acquisition offer from Orange, Conn.-based software developer Tangoe Inc. "We always planned to build an attractive company that other companies would be interested in," says Rudich. Still, he did not expect an offer to come so soon.
Yet, the timing couldn't have been better. Anomalous needed more capital to grow its international sales and support network. Joining forces with Tangoe makes Anomalous part of a 1,000-person public company with 24/7 customer support and 13 offices worldwide.
The fit seemed right, too. "We had the sense very early on in the negotiation process that the deal was going to happen," Rudich recalls. "The whole thing took about six weeks, actually. People liked one another. Our valuations were close. Even the lawyers worked well together."
The deal closed in January for about US$9 million in cash and stock. Now, Rudich is a senior VP of rTEM, the former Anomalous unit within Tangoe. He's happy in that role, but he's keeping his options open: "I'm only 41, so I still have lots of time to think of doing other things."
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