Indie HD Vest Bought by Blucora, Maker of TaxACT, for $580M
October 14, 2015 By Janet Levaux, ThinkAdvisor The tax-software firm hopes to boost business by aligning with the indie broker-dealer, which has about 4,500 reps HD Vest, which has about 4,500 affiliated independent-contractor advisors, is being sold to Blucora (BCOR), the company formerly called InfoSpace and maker of the TaxACT tax-preparation software, for about $580 million. The deal is expected to close either late this year or early next year. For the past four years, HD Vest has been owned by an private equity investor group led by Parthenon Capital Partners; the group includes Lovell Minnick Partners and Fisher Lynch. “Part of the reason they wanted to partner with HD has to do with unlocking the value of their 5.5 million customers who do tax returns with TaxACT each year,” said HD Vest President and...