British cybersecurity company Sophos announced today that its acquisition by Thoma Bravo is now complete.
The private equity firm snapped up the company in a cash transaction that values Sophos at $3.9bn. Under the terms of the agreement, Sophos stockholders will receive $7.40 USD per share.
The acquisition offer was first announced on October 14, 2019. Stockholders voted to approve the transaction on December 3, 2019.
Sophos was founded by Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer and began producing its first antivirus and encryption products in 1985. Today the company serves more than 400,000 organizations in over 150 countries from its headquarters in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.
The company currently partners with more than 53,000 resellers and managed service providers to protect over 420,000 organizations and 100 million global users from advanced cyber-threats.
Sophos CEO Kris Hagerman said: "Sophos is excited to work with Thoma Bravo as we begin our next chapter of growth and success, continuing in our mission to deliver the world’s most effective next-generation cybersecurity technology."
Hagerman predicted that partnering with Thoma Bravo would speed up Sophos' journey to becoming a leader in next-gen cybersecurity—a journey that he says is well under way.
"Our transition to become a fully next-gen cybersecurity leader continues to rapidly progress. Last quarter, our next-gen product portfolio represented over 60% of our entire business and grew 44% year-over-year. And very recently, we launched our most significant network security technology ever, the Sophos XG Firewall with Xstream architecture," said Hagerman.
"With Thoma Bravo as a partner, we believe we can accelerate our progress and get to the future even faster, with dramatic benefits for our customers, our partners and our company as a whole."
Forty-year-old firm Thoma Bravo has been operating an investment strategy of buy-and-build in the software and technology industries for nearly 20 years, acquiring more than 200 companies representing over $500bn of value.
"Sophos has been constantly raising the bar with its industry-leading synchronized security, advanced deep learning technology and rapid growth within the MSP (managed service provider) channel," said Seth Boro, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo.
"We are excited to partner with Sophos to help build upon their success as they further drive innovation in cybersecurity."