STOCKHOLM, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Swedish enterprise software maker IFS, owned by private equity firm EQT, said on Thursday it had struck a deal to buy U.S. software company WorkWave in its biggest ever acquisition.
** IFS said it was buying WorkWave, which sells cloud-based solutions to small and medium sized service businesses, for an undisclosed amount
** IFS has been on a shopping spree for much of the last decade and has increased focus on acquisitions - bigger and more frequent - since it was bought by EQT in 2015, Fredrik vom Hofe, head of strategy at IFS told Reuters
** vom Hofe said IFS used to eye companies with sales of around $5 million to $50 million but had started looking for larger acquisitions since being bought by EQT
** vom Hofe declined to say if WorkWave had revenues exceeding $50 million
** “We have a very active pipeline (of potential acquisitions),” vom Hofe said
** IFS, which focuses on sectors such as Oil & Gas, Aerospace & Defence and Field Services Management, had revenues of 3.6 billion Swedish crowns ($442 million) in 2016, up 9 pct from the previous year ($1 = 8.1387 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Olof Swahnberg; editing by Niklas Pollard)