Thoma Bravo agreed to a record breaking Proofpoint buyout. The Chicago-based private equity firm plans to buy out publicly traded cybersecurity company Proofpoint (PFPT). The cash deal values Proofpoint at $12.3 billion. Thoma Bravo has agreed to acquire the company with a $176.00 per share price. That is a 34% premium to its trading price starting 04/23/2021.
Proofpoint buyout
Proofpoint Chief Executive Gary Steele told MarketWatch,
…in 2020 we generated more than $1 billion in annual revenue – making Proofpoint the first SaaS-based cybersecurity and compliance company to reach that milestone
The board of directors of Proofpoint has approved the Proofpoint buyout agreement, including a deadline called the go shop, which expires on June 9th. This means that the company has 45 days to consider proposals from other parties.
About Proofpoint
Former Netscape CTO Eric Hahn, founded Proofpoint in June 2002. He helped launch the company in 2003 having raised $7m in a Series A funding round. Proofpoint was initially backed by venture capitalists Benchmark Capital and by Stanford University. In 2012, the company went public with an IPO which raised more than $80m.
About Thoma Bravo
Chicago’s Thoma Bravo specializes in technology deals. The PE firm has previously made investments in SolarWinds, a software company that is in the midst of a huge cyberespionage campaign. Thoma Bravo has also bought up controlling stakes in cybersecurity companies in the past, including:
- Barracuda in a 2017 deal worth $1.6 billion;
- Imperva for $2.1 billion in October 2018;
- Sophos in 2020 for $3.9 billion.
rb-
This is a big deal. The $12.3 billion price tag makes it the biggest cybersecurity acquisition of all time. More than the $7.68 billion Intel shelled out for McAfee 11 years ago. And VentureBeat estimates that the Proofpoint acquisition represents one of the biggest overall technology acquisitions ever, putting it in the top 20, alongside megadeals that include Dell’s $67 billion EMC purchase, IBM’s $34 billion Red Hat deal, and Salesforce’s pending $27.7 billion Slack acquisition.
Related article
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him at LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.