California-based Private Equity Firm, Diversis, Becomes Majority Owner of BLUE

DES PLAINES, IL - SGK, formerly marketed as Schawk, Inc., a leading global brand development, activation and deployment provider that drives brand performance, announced today that it has closed on a transaction that creates a strategic private equity partnership with California-based private equity firm, Diversis.

The terms of the transaction make Diversis, the majority owner of BLUE, SGK’s enterprise-level software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform and SGK, a partner with a minority interest. The minority interest ensures that SGK will have an active voice in the future development of the product.

BLUE operates within the marketing eco-system to help global CPG, Retail and Life Sciences companies accelerate brand performance by delivering visibility, transparency and insight into the business processes that drive the execution and management of brands efficiently across media worldwide. BLUE enables brand owners in highly regulated industries to adhere and adapt to FDA, EMEA and other government regulations regarding audits, system validations, audit trails, electronic signatures and documentation. 

David Schawk, president SGK, Division of Matthews International Corporation said “I am confident that our strategic partnership with Diversis will deliver greater value to those of our clients who use BLUE to accelerate the performance of their brands. This partnership will allow SGK to focus on its core capabilities while drawing on new resources that are focused exclusively on technology to elevate our client’s experience with BLUE.”

Scott Strong, former senior vice president, global managing director, Schawk Digital Solutions, part of of SGK and now chief executive officer of Blue Software Holdings, “I am excited to lead BLUE into the future as part of Blue Software, a new independent software company.” Added Strong, “Our singular focus is BLUE and we are committed to accelerating the development of the product on an ongoing basis. We look forward to the opportunity to provide even greater value to SGK’s current clients and to continue leveraging the insights of SGK business leaders into the ever evolving workflow needs of global corporations.”

Stephen Kaufman, chief technology officer, SGK, and the original creator of the product that evolved into BLUE said, “All successful ventures undergo evolutions and I see Diversis’ interest in BLUE as strong validation of Schawk’s 15-year strategy to provide a complete graphic lifecycle platform as a free standing offering. The new partnership will nourish and extend the platform as a gold standard for packaging supply chain and brand process optimization."