Investment firm KKR is buying security vendor Barracuda Networks from fellow investment company Thoma Bravo.
While the value of the deal has not publicly been revealed, there is speculation it is worth $4 billion, including debt.
Thoma Bravo itself acquired Barracuda at the end of 2017, in a deal worth $2 billion. Since then, Barracuda has made a few acquisitions to flesh out its service offerings. It is a significant channel player, so partners will be looking to see if there is any fall-out from the transaction.
The vendor focuses on serving small- and medium-sized enterprises and has more than 200,000 end customers worldwide across a variety of industries. Annual revenue stands at over $500m.
KKR said it will provide resources and expertise to “further accelerate” the supplier’s growth, and to support its strategic expansion in key areas, including managed detection and response, extended detection and response, and secure access service edge (SASE) technology.
"We believe that with the support of KKR, we will continue to invest in growth and foster a culture that gives our team the resources and inspiration to continue to create and deliver the next generation of leading cyber security solutions, for our customers and partners," said Hatem Naguib, CEO of Barracuda.
"We continue to see cyber security as a highly attractive sector and are excited to back a clear leader in the space," said John Park, head of Americas technology private equity at KKR. "Given its proven track record of growth and innovation, we believe that Barracuda has the right team and model to capture business in this growing market."
The acquisition of Barracuda builds upon KKR’s experience of investing in the cyber security sector globally, with investments including Ping, Cylance, DarkTrace, ForgeRock, NetSPI and Optiv, among others.
The transaction is anticipated to close by the end of the year. Earlier this week, Thoma Bravo said it was acquiring identity security company SailPoint Technologies, in a deal valued at $6.9 billion.
