ARN

Blue Coat sold to private equity firm for £830m

Thoma Bravo insists prospects will be better for it as a private company

WAN optimisation and web security vendor Blue Coat is set to be acquired by a group led by Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm, for $1.3 billion (£830 million).

The Blue Coat board has accepted the offer and recommended it to shareholders.

The Thoma Bravo group also includes investment company the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, which is currently suing IT services firm CSC over allegations of misreported prospects on the NHS National Programme for IT.

Under the terms of the agreement, Blue Coat shareholders will receive $25.81 in cash for each share of Blue Coat common stock they hold, representing a premium of approximately 48 percent over Blue Coat's closing price on 8 December.

David Hanna, chairman at Blue Coat, said: "Over the last six months, our Board of Directors engaged in a comprehensive review of all strategic options available to Blue Coat.

"After an extensive evaluation of strategic alternatives with our independent advisors, the Board has determined that the definitive agreement with Thoma Bravo provides an attractive all-cash valuation to our shareholders."

Orlando Bravo, managing partner at Thoma Bravo, added: "As a private company, Blue Coat will be better positioned to innovate at an accelerated rate and achieve a higher level of growth."

The transaction is subject regulatory approvals as well as the approval of Blue Coat shareholders. Blue Coat expects the transaction to close in the first calendar quarter of 2012.

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

More about: Blue Coat, CSC, IDG
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the ARN comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: applications, csc, IT Business, security, software
ARN Directory | Distributors relevant to this article
Annuity Systems , Distribution Central , Express Data , Firewall Systems
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to ARN's news, research and invitation only events.
ARN Distributor Directory
Find distributors by name | vendor | location
Channel Deals
/deals/aca-pacific/442_rimage-trade-in-program-inkjet-to-everest-ther
ACA Pacific

Rimage Trade-In Program - Inkjet-to-Everest Thermal Printing. Ends June 15th, 2012.

More details »
ARN Vendor Directory
Find vendors by name | category

iAsset is a channel management ecosystem that automates all major aspects of the entire sales,marketing and service process, including data tracking, integrated learning, knowledge management and product lifecycle management.