WE Transport Acquired by Beacon Mobility, an Audax Private Equity Portfolio Company
Pryor Cashman client WE Transport, a bus company that operates for home-to-school, private, wheelchair-bound riders, and pre-school children, was acquired by Beacon Mobility, a leading provider of outsourced transportation services to K-12 students with special needs in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. This acquisition expands Beacon's footprint into New York City, Long Island, and Connecticut, representing its seventh company platform addition.
According to a recent announcement:
The Deal
Beacon Mobility (“Beacon”), a portfolio company of Audax Private Equity (“Audax”), has completed the acquisition of WE Transport. This acquisition expands Beacon’s footprint into New York City, Long Island, and Connecticut. This acquisition represents Beacon’s seventh under Audax ownership.
The Thesis
Audax formed Beacon Mobility with the vision of creating a national specialty transportation platform focused on special needs student transportation and other higher acuity transportation services. In May 2018, Audax first partnered with Beacon (formerly known as Van Pool Transportation), a leading provider of special needs student transportation based in Massachusetts. Since the original aquisition, Beacon has expanded into adjacent non-emergency medical transportation, yellow-bus student transportation, and paratransit services. Audax will continue to work with the Beacon management team to drive further organic growth and help accelerate its acquisition strategy to continue expanding into new geographies and service offerings.
The representation of WE Transport was led by Corporate Group Partner Lawrence Spector. The Pryor Cashman team also included partners Michael Dunworth (Tax), Benjamin Teig (Real Estate), Christopher Loeber (Insurance), Shane Stroud (Executive Compensation), Richard Frazer (Corporate), Jeffrey Johnson (Intellectual Property), and Joshua Zuckerberg (Labor + Employment). Additional support was provided by corporate counsel Francesca Djerejian, counsel Matthew Young (Executive Compensation), along with Andy Goldwasser (Corporate), John Rothman (Real Estate), Islame Hosny (Tax), Mollie Adam (Corporate), Maraiya Hakeem (Corporate), and Eric Wisotsky (Corporate).
