A Long Island maker of software for legal offices plans a 50% head count expansion after closing a merger, officials said.
On Thursday, Port Washington-based Zola Suite closed a merger with AbacusNext, whose software is used in the legal and accounting markets.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Fred J. Cohen, founder and chief executive of Zola Suite, said the Long Island company would continue operating under its own brand and plans to add about 25 new hires to its 45-person workforce within six months.
“We’re hiring across engineering, client support, sales and marketing,” he said.
Cohen said the new hires will enable Zola Suite to enhance its software, but also “to support a significant acceleration in growth.”
Scott Johnson, chief executive of San Diego-based AbacusNext, retains the CEO title for the combined company.
In a statement, Johnson said the merger will allow the companies to “better serve our customers” with cloud software products.
AbacusNext, with a client base of about 11,000 law firms, has roughly 300 employees.
Cohen will remain CEO of the Zola Suite unit, serve as chief legal strategist to AbacusNext and join the AbacusNext board of directors.
Zola Suite, founded in 2015, offers cloud-based software to manage customer relationships; email; documents; tasks; accounting; timekeeping, and billing for law offices.
The merger follows a private-equity deal announced in March in which Boston-based Thomas H. Lee Partners LP acquired a majority stake in AbacusNext.
Cohen, who used bootstrap financing — in which entrepreneurs don’t turn to outside funders like venture capitalists — to build Zola Suite, said that he retains a minority stake in the combined business.
Before becoming a software entrepreneur, Cohen, a graduate of Hofstra University’s School of Law, was a practicing attorney dealing with trusts and estates.
Zola Creative, a marketing company formerly operated in tandem with Zola Suite, split from that business after the merger and will seek new office space, a spokeswoman said.
Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.