• Thoma Bravo Acquires Sophos Plus
• Thoma Bravo Acquires Sophos Software
• Thoma Bravo Acquires Sophos Security

A US investment firm is set to take the British security giant Sophos private in a deal valuing the company at £3.1bn.

By Joe Panettieri. Mar 2, 2020. Private equity firm Thoma Bravo‘s $3.9 billion buyout of Sophos has been completed, and the two companies remain deeply committed to an MSP-centric cybersecurity push, the firms said today.

Private equity investor Thoma Bravo, which has acquired a string of US software companies in recent years, secured the unanimous support of Sophos’s directors with a cash offer of $7.40 per share (583p at the time of announcement).

The value of Sophos’s shares rose by 35.6 per cent on Monday (15 October) as details of the proposed deal were unveiled. The news came after warnings of slow growth triggered a fall in the LSE-listed company’s shares last November and in January of this year.

• San Francisco and London, 14 October 2019 – Thoma Bravo, LLC ('Thoma Bravo'), a leading private equity investment firm focused on the software and technology-enabled services sectors, today announced that it has reached agreement with the board of directors of Sophos Group plc ('Sophos') on the terms of a recommended cash offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Sophos (the 'Acquisition').
• Private equity firm Thoma Bravo plans today to buy UK-based cyber-security giant Sophos for $7.40 per share, for a total value of $3.9 billion, both companies announced today.

Headquartered in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, Sophos specialises in end-point and network security. It was founded in 1985 by Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer, who support the deal and are in line to make a total of £464m. Tableau reader download 2020.

Sophos employs around 3,300 employees around the world and claims to have more than 400,000 clients in 150 countries. Thoma Bravo described the acquisition as an “attractive opportunity to increase its exposure to the large and growing cyber security market”.

The investment firm, which has offices in Chicago and San Francisco, has acquired a total of 200 companies. It bought Barracuda Networks in February 2018, Imperva in January this year and also owns a minority stake in McAfee.

Seth Boro, a managing partner at the company, said the Sophos deal “fits with our strategy of investing in and growing software and technology businesses globally. […] Sophos has a market-leading product portfolio and we believe that, by applying Thoma Bravo’s expertise, operational framework and experience, we can support the business and accelerate its evolution and growth.”

Sophos’s chairman, Peter Gyenes, added: “It is the view of the Sophos Board that this is a compelling offer for Sophos shareholders which secures the delivery of future value for shareholders today. Thoma Bravo has deep sector expertise in cybersecurity software as well as a long and successful track record of partnering with and investing in its portfolio companies to support long-term growth and success.”

Today, following the completion of the take-private acquisition by Thoma Bravo, Sophos begins an exciting new chapter of continued growth, success, and industry leadership. As a private company, Sophos intends to further accelerate our mission to protect people from cybercrime by developing powerful and intuitive products and services that provide the world’s most effective cybersecurity for organizations of any size.

Thoma Bravo Acquires Sophos Plus

We’re starting strong: our next-gen product portfolio, all managed in our Sophos Central cloud-management platform, now comprises over 60% of our total company billings and is growing 44% year-over-year (YOY). Just last month we launched our most significant network security technology ever, Sophos XG Firewall v18 with the Xstream architecture. We are seeing substantial growth not only in network security, but across our entire next-gen product line from endpoint and server security, to mobile, email, and cloud security. Our new Managed Threat Response (MTR) service launched last October has seen rapid adoption, and now protects hundreds of customers around the world with advanced, 24×7 threat detection and response. On the go-to-market front, our channel has never been stronger, and we continue to post dramatic results in our Managed Service Provider (MSP) business, which is a strategic priority and is growing at over 75% YOY. Sophos continues to drive market-leading innovation, and we are filling the cybersecurity void left by fading, less-nimble, and less-evolved vendors.

Thoma Bravo Acquires Sophos Software

With the full support and experience of Thoma Bravo behind us, we believe we can accelerate the next-gen transition we already have well underway, and get to the future even faster, enabling us to deliver enhanced cybersecurity solutions for our customers, and dramatic new business opportunities for our channel partners.

Thoma Bravo Acquires Sophos Security

This is a historic milestone in the ongoing journey of Sophos and a springboard to our next phase of growth and success. I’m tremendously excited about the opportunities ahead. Watch this space!