Heh, I didn't realize they sold those. I got some a couple years ago as a freebie, not sure it was worth the amount of sophos marketing crap I got for the next year or so after I gave them my contact info.
I have multiple legit emails for that exact reason. We had a competition to see who could get the most marketing rubbish at a university fair (this method meant I won, and also noticed an inverse correlation between academic prestige and marketing spending) and I never stopped.
Haha these are all amazing, definitely picking up some before they inevitably close it down. How is it possible that a security company makes better socks than many clothing companies? I mean, come on, you don't even have to be a huge tech nerd to appreciate Mr Miyagi's "Socks On Socks Off"
Bought by Thoma Bravo. Fits the pattern. You would think they would be trying to mash up some these companies to corner the SMB security market but they seem to keep all their companies distinct.
Or perhaps zero mess, and this is just a good way to acquire all the patents and later they can merge either the companies or the teams behind them to produce what TB envisions. Tha scarier name I saw in their companies' list is BlueCoat. That is some nasty (good nasty) stuff.
I notice that the power of these new behemoths are a risk to SMEs. Kaseya/Datto/ITGlue/CWM/Automate/Sophos/BG/Sell... These all used to be of a size that could communicate and deal with small business. Far more focus weighted towards enterprise now.
So 3.9b / 600m Revenue = 6.5years horizon to breakeven.
Assuming no growth plan, they can hollow out the operating costs by cutting staff by 1/4, and offshoring another 1/4.
Guessing here, but their aim is a total return of +%30-%50 (~$2bn)over 10 years with relatively low risk vs. indexes or VC plays.
It works, but it's like putting a company into a digester.
I think Sophos has just a touch more to it than that. They have a great deal of product and technology and tens of thousands of customers. TB will be interested in growth here by aligning Sophos with its other security assets. I think Sophos is the jewel in the crown frankly. McAfee was the sausage.
If that's the case, the challenge will be retaining the key people responsible for Sophos's 'intellectual capital' and sales relationships. It can be extremely costly to keep people after a PE acquisition in cyber - combination of removing the equity incentives (e.g. stock will eventually vest for the top people, if it hasn’t already) plus being in a very hot market where poaching talent is common plus general erosion in conditions to service the debt from the LBO.
The cynic in me thinks TB knows cybersecurity will sell at even more ludicrous multiples in the future (and they’re swimming in dry powder), so they won’t need to care too much about the underlying health of the business. The optimist thinks that TB are the masters of this niche and see synergies I don’t.
Source: I’ve done DDs in this space and our firm’s (public) stance is to encourage organic growth over doing deals
To add more specificity they now own Barracuda, Centrify, ConnectWise, idaptiv, imperva, imprivata, LogRythm, McAfee, solarwinds, Sophos, and Veracode in the "Current Investments" and "Security" sector defined on their own search filter[1].
Readit News
Great stuff and USPS shipping is free to Europe (DHL is $114.91).
A few household names on the acquisition list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoma_Bravo#Transactions
URL: https://www.thomabravo.com/companies
McAfee used to be something in the 1990s, now it is bloatware.
(I was getting connection timeout errors on the linked article from the post)
I notice that the power of these new behemoths are a risk to SMEs. Kaseya/Datto/ITGlue/CWM/Automate/Sophos/BG/Sell... These all used to be of a size that could communicate and deal with small business. Far more focus weighted towards enterprise now.
Now Cisco on the other hand, god damned they have their mitts in everything and most of it’s trash. But nobody got fired for buying Cisco, yet.
So 3.9b / 600m Revenue = 6.5years horizon to breakeven.
Assuming no growth plan, they can hollow out the operating costs by cutting staff by 1/4, and offshoring another 1/4. Guessing here, but their aim is a total return of +%30-%50 (~$2bn)over 10 years with relatively low risk vs. indexes or VC plays.
It works, but it's like putting a company into a digester.
The cynic in me thinks TB knows cybersecurity will sell at even more ludicrous multiples in the future (and they’re swimming in dry powder), so they won’t need to care too much about the underlying health of the business. The optimist thinks that TB are the masters of this niche and see synergies I don’t.
Source: I’ve done DDs in this space and our firm’s (public) stance is to encourage organic growth over doing deals
[1] https://www.thomabravo.com/companies
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