
Sophos acquired for $3.9B - technion
https://itbrief.com.au/story/sophos-acquired-for-usd-3-9-billion-in-cash
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buryat
Sophos is the company I use to buy cycling socks, I think I should stock up
before they close the store
[https://shop.sophos.com/collections/itsocks](https://shop.sophos.com/collections/itsocks)

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notatoad
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.

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mhh__
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.

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therockspush
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.

A few household names on the acquisition list.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoma_Bravo#Transactions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoma_Bravo#Transactions)

~~~
wutwutwutwut
Like mashing up Sophos and McAfee? Can you imagine the mess?

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cable2600
No doubt there will be some downsizing before they get mashed up.

McAfee used to be something in the 1990s, now it is bloatware.

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HenryBemis
I am still (proudly) using the McAfee Antivirus Enterprise edition on my Win
Pro machine. It has (imho) the best options/flexibility. I also remember that
the respective firewall was also super strong and very versatile but I can't
get my hands on any latest version of it (I have the AV legally).

~~~
exikyut
My understanding is that Windows Defender is the only decent engine nowadays,
but that's second-hand anecdata I can't measure the bias of (I don't currently
use Windows).

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alex_anglin
Windows Defender ATP is also on linux: [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/security/threat-pro...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/windows/security/threat-protection/microsoft-defender-atp/microsoft-
defender-atp-linux)

~~~
exikyut
Ahahaha Microsoft had to catch up to
[https://github.com/taviso/loadlibrary](https://github.com/taviso/loadlibrary)

Nice!

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kriscroaker
I wonder if this was the suitor for HIBP who had their circumstances change?

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regnerba
This was my first thought as well.

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bretpiatt
Link to Sophos release: [https://www.sophos.com/en-us/press-office/press-
releases/201...](https://www.sophos.com/en-us/press-office/press-
releases/2019/10/thoma-bravo-makes-offer-to-acquire-sophos.aspx)

(I was getting connection timeout errors on the linked article from the post)

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ethiclub
Good move ...and the consolidations continue...

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.

~~~
snuxoll
Sophos still stays squarely in the security space at least, I wouldn’t exactly
call them a behemoth.

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.

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motohagiography
Napkin math:

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.

~~~
ttul
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.

~~~
_xander
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

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gdsdfe
Anyone in this space can explain this acquisition? What's the end game here?

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almost_usual
Thoma Bravo has been acquiring companies in the infosec space. I’m assuming
they’re trying to build a portfolio and maybe consolidate at some point.

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bretpiatt
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].

[1]
[https://www.thomabravo.com/companies](https://www.thomabravo.com/companies)

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LogicX
SolarWinds was private 2015-2018 but went public again in 2018.

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kemonocode
A reminder that whenever any cybersecurity-related company gets acquired, any
trust you have on them ought to be reset.

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142
How many people laid off? Thoma Bravo is notorious for being extremely
spreadsheet-driven and lays off.

I feel bad for the employees.

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heybrendan
How difficult would it have been to include "[...] by Thoma Bravo" in the
headline?

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anandrm
I wonder what grand plan Thoma Bravo has, they are on a shopping spree on
Network Security companies(Imperva,Barracuda,Sophos,Mcacfee...)

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AznHisoka
Probably as simple as reducing expenses, laying off people, restructuring and
spinning the Frankenstein result in an IPO years later.

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password4321
I hope this doesn't end the plan to open source
[https://sandboxie.com](https://sandboxie.com) after Sophos acquired Invencia.

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wmil
One hopes that they'll use the money to release a Mac version that isn't
terrible.

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huslage
Thoma Bravo is really cleaning up lately.

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fludlight
"Cleaning up" is a phrase reserved for exits. Thoma Bravo is merely
"acquisitive". They just raised a big new fund; it is common to have a couple
of transactions lined up when raising a new fund so you can begin with a bang
and deploy capital sooner rather than later.

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142
True but they know how to maximize the spreadsheets. Expect to see some large
returns for Thoma Bravo in the next few years.

The investors will do real good -- from the investor perspective, they are
great. Just sucks for the workers that get churned out in the process.

