Cooligy provides customized liquid cooling solutions that remove heat produced by today's high-performance electronic systems. Known throughout the thermal solutions industry for its superior team, Cooligy is unparalleled in thermal design, prototyping, and integration of thermal solutions. The expertise of the team spans applications in high performance workstations, performance towers, DLP projection TVs, graphics cards, 1U servers and blade servers.

The Challenge

In late 2004 Cooligy's newly appointed President and CEO, Mark Munch, recognized that Cooligy needed to partner with the right company in order to take advantage of significant growth opportunities in the thermal solutions space. Despite the company's unrivaled team and technology, it had become clear that Cooligy would fit much better under the umbrella of a high-capacity parent than it would as a stand-alone, single solution company. With the board's approval, Mr. Munch began the process of hiring the right advisory group to facilitate the execution of a successful transaction. After running an exhaustive search, Mr. Munch selected Arbor Advisors. Although he had interviewed larger banks, Mr. Munch felt that "the Arbor team offered the right mix of operational expertise and negotiation ability to execute most effectively on behalf of the company and its board."

The Solutions

Emerson Electric acquired Cooligy in a reverse triangular merger in September of 2005. Cooligy adds fluid-based, chip-level cooling technology to Emerson Network Power's family of cooling solutions. Mr. Munch said of the transaction: "I believe we found the best partner to help us achieve the full potential of this technology. Emerson has a solid reputation for bringing technology and engineering together to create solutions for the benefit of customers, which is exactly what our solutions do. In addition, Emerson's global reach gives us access to new markets."

Arbor Value Add

• Spoke in depth with almost 100 potential acquirers while searching for the ideal partner. Contacted over 100 potential buyers for the company
• Did not grant exclusivity to any Cooligy bidder during engagement, thus allowing for a final increase in valuation near the close of the transaction
• Negotiated multiple sets of definitive documents with separate bidders, thus reducing closing risk while simultaneously escalating commitment and creating the ideal situation for a last minute price increase