Sophos, a cybersecurity company, announced on March 3 that it had been taken over in by Thoma Bravo. The acquisition was made in a cash transaction that valued the company at US$3.9 billion.
Thoma Bravo is a private equity firm that focuses on the software and technology-enabled services industries. This transaction was approved on December 3, 2019, through a stockholders’ vote.
Sophos’ common stock ceased trading on the London Stock Exchange with the completion of this acquisition. Thoma Bravo also released financial data along with this announcement detailing this acquisition.
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Sophos stockholders now get $7.40 per share in a 168% premium to its IPO share price dated June 2015. In that context, the company’s chief executive officer 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. Our transition to becoming a fully next-gen cybersecurity leader continues to progress rapidly. Last quarter, our next-gen product portfolio represented over 60% of our entire business and grew 44% year-over-year.”
The CEO also said that the company recently launched the Sophos XG Firewall with Xstream architecture. Thus, the new partnership can accelerate progress enabling the company to attain its goals faster.
Therefore, this acquisition is expected to benefit customers, partners, and the company in general.
Customer Base
Sophos partners with over 53,000 resellers and managed service providers to protect over 420,000 organizations. The company protects 100 million users from the most advanced cyber threats according to their official announcement.
Thoma Bravo managing partner Seth Boro said:
“Sophos has been raising the bar with its synchronized security, deep learning technology and growth within the MSP channel. We are excited to partner with Sophos to help build upon their success as they further drive innovation in cybersecurity.”
This announcement comes a month barely after Sophos announced the launch of its mobile security app Intercept X. The company launched its security software for mobile after it published its research.
The research discovered that some applications were affected by malicious software called Fleeceware. The bug covertly overcharged unsuspecting customers using App Store or Google Play.
In September 2019, Sophos discovered that Fleeceware was still a problem with over 20 newly discovered applications, with almost 600 million claimed installations. Dan Schiappa, Sophos chief product officer, said:
“Fleeceware and other unscrupulous app developers are walking a fine line to avoid breaking hard and fast app store rules. This sneaky behaviour is unethical, but not illegal.”
As the world shifts to the digital era, more security measures are needed for the safe storage of data and information.
