Financial terms were not disclosed in agreement for KKR to acquire Barracuda from Thoma Bravo.
Barracuda offers a broad suite of cybersecurity solutions across email protection, application security, network security and data protection and claims to have more than 200,000 customers worldwide.
Barracuda has expanded and enhanced its product suite and successfully executed a number of strategic acquisitions that propelled the company to over $500mm of revenue
KKR plans to provide resources and expertise to further accelerate the company’s growth and support its strategic expansion in key areas, including managed detection and response, extended detection and response, and secure access service edge technology.
Barracuda will implement KKR’s broad-based employee ownership program, which makes all employees owners in their respective businesses alongside KKR. This strategy is based on the belief that employee engagement is a key driver in building stronger companies. Since 2011,
KKR has awarded billions of dollars of total equity value to over 45,000 non-management employees across more than 25 companies.
“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 cybersecurity solutions for our customers and partners,” said Hatem Naguib, CEO of Barracuda. “We are very appreciative of Thoma Bravo’s support and very excited to be working with KKR on this next phase of Barracuda’s journey.”
“We continue to see cybersecurity 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 investment in Barracuda builds upon KKR’s experience investing in the cybersecurity 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, subject to customary conditions.
Please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com and barracuda at barracuda.com
