On 11 August 2011 the Norwegian software company, Dolphin AS, announced that it had been acquired by Via Venture Partners, a Danish venture capital firm, and Verdane Capital VI and VII. Verdane is a Norwegian organizer of  “secondary direct funds & co-investment pools”.

Dolphin delivers customer service systems and consultancy and is about to launch products that involve social media. It was founded in 1989 and has been owned by Telenor from 1994 until 2003 when it was bought from its management group.

Since 2009 Verdane has gradually acquired shares from Dolphin’s managers and now holds 48% in total of the share capital of the company. Another 48% has been acquired by Via Venture Partners, and the remaining 4% is still owned by management.

Price and other terms of the transaction has not been disclosed. The acquisition by Via Venture Partners and Verdane is most likely to be viewed as a private equity acquisition of a software company and not as a venture capital investment.