Private equity firms muscle into Constellation Software's backyard

Toronto

CONSTELLATION Software Inc has long shrugged off Canada's reputation for niceness. The Toronto-based company has built an empire by rolling up vulnerable tech startups at home and abroad, along the way ousting founders and firing employees.

If Constellation bruised some egos, it's rewarded investors handsomely; since the company went public in 2006, the shares have returned more than 3,000 per cent, making Constellation Canada's best-performing tech stock over the last 10 years.