San Francisco, California - Thoma Brava, a massive private equity firm with diverse interests in the cyber security industry is busy again this week following the acquisition of Barracuda Networks in a take-private deal valued at approximately $1.6-billion dollars. Barracuda was reportedly offered $27.55 per share, about 16% above Friday’s close.
Barracuda, which is based out of Campbell, California, provides security for cloud-based networks and applications. It’s a competitor of Palo Alto Networks and Symantec. The company boasts high-profile clients like Microsoft, Boeing and the US Department of Defense among its 150,000 customers.
If the names Thoma Bravo and Symantec ring a bell, it’s because Thoma Bravo was the facilitator of DigiCert’s recent $950-million dollar acquisition of Symantec’s Certificate Authority. That deal, which was recently finalized, saw Symantec sell its CA in exchange for nearly a billion dollars up front, as well as a 30% stake in DigiCert’s business.
Thoma Bravo’s deal for Barracuda is expected to close in February. Morgan Stanley advised Barracuda on the deal while Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and USB worked with Thoma Bravo.
“We believe the proposed transaction offers an opportunity for us to accelerate our growth with our industry-leading security platform that’s purpose-built for highly distributed, diverse cloud and hybrid environments,” said BJ Jenkins, chief executive officer of Barracuda, in a statement. “We will continue Barracuda’s tradition of delivering easy-to-use, full-featured solutions that can be deployed in the way that makes sense for our customers.”
Thoma Bravo is a private equity firm based out of Chicago and San Francisco with over $17-billion under management, including Compuware, McAfee and SailPoint.