1.   

On 21 December 2023, the Commission received notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1).

This notification concerns the following undertakings:

—	Blackstone Inc. (together with its affiliates ‘Blackstone’, UNITED STATES),

—	Vista Equity Partners Management, LLC (together with its affiliates ‘Vista’, UNITED STATES),

—	Simulation Software Holding Company Pty Ltd, (‘Energy Exemplar’, Australia), ultimate parent entity of the Energy Exemplar group of companies.

Blackstone and Vista will acquire within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation joint control of Energy Exemplar.

The concentration is accomplished by way of purchase of shares.

2.   

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are the following:

—	Blackstone is a global alternative asset manager. It is headquartered in the United States and has offices in Europe and Asia.

—	Vista is a US-based investment firm focused on empowering and growing enterprise software, data and technology-enabled businesses. Vista controls a number of portfolio companies that are active in the provision of IT services such as the provision of business software.

3.   

The business activities of the undertaking Energy Exemplar are the following: Energy Exemplar is a provider of energy market modelling and analytics software to assist decision-making in energy planning, operations, and investment for their customers in the electricity, water, gas and renewables sectors. Energy Exemplar is an Australian company with a global presence.

4.   

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope of the Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.

Pursuant to the Commission Notice on a simplified treatment for certain concentrations under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (2) it should be noted that this case is a candidate for treatment under the procedure set out in the Notice.

5.   

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. The following reference should always be specified:

M.11375 – BLACKSTONE / VISTA / ENERGY EXEMPLAR

Observations can be sent to the Commission by email or by post. Please use the contact details below:

Email: COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu

Postal address:

European Commission

Directorate-General for Competition

Merger Registry

1049 Bruxelles/Brussel

BELGIQUE/BELGIË