The Bristol office of accountancy, investment management and tax group Smith & Williamson has advised on the £5.5m sale of online intelligence company ResponseSource to Access Intelligence plc.

ResponseSource, based in Croydon, was founded by former journalist Daryl Willcox in 1997 and provides online intelligence to PR, marketing and news professionals.

Access Intelligence, also based in London, specialises in corporate communications and reputation management software. Its flagship product is communications management platform Vuelio, which is used by a range of private and public sector organisations around the world.

The transaction was led by Iain Lownes, partner and corporate finance director, and Paul Stagg, Senior Manager, at Smith & Williamson. Tax advice was provided by Smith & Williamson partner Ray Abercromby. Legal advice was provided by Bracher Rawlins LLP.

“Smith & Williamson has a strong focus on working with entrepreneurs and technology businesses and we are delighted to have completed another transaction in this space, in this case one that will help two ambitious and innovative software-as-a-service businesses to realise their strategic ambitions,”

Daryl Willcox, who will stay on with Access Intelligence as director of audience strategy, said:

“Selling a business is exciting but can also be a challenging time so having the right advisers is critical.

“Having worked with other corporate finance advisers in the past I was very careful when putting together the team to assist the ResponseSource transaction and I have to say Smith & Williamson has been fantastic the whole way through the process.

“Its corporate finance team gives the bespoke support you’d expect from a boutique firm with the technical back-up of a large professional services organisation.”