UK cybersecurity firm Darktrace has agreed to sell itself to private equity giant Thoma Bravo for approximately $5.32 billion in cash, the company announced Friday.
Founded in 2013 by senior members of the UK’s GCHQ and other intelligence agencies, Darktrace offers an AI-powered threat detection and response platform designed for enterprise IT environments, email systems, and operational technology (OT) environments.
The company has more than 2,300 employees and approximately 9,400 customers.
The buyout represents a 44.3% premium to the volume-weighted average price per share for the three-month period ended April 25, 2024, the last business day before the acquisition announcement.
The Darktrace Board said it “previously reviewed and rejected unsolicited proposed offers from Thoma Bravo on the basis that they did not fairly represent the value of the Darktrace business.”
“Thoma Bravo believes that the acquisition of Darktrace represents an attractive opportunity to increase its exposure to the large and growing cybersecurity market, and to invest to accelerate Darktrace’s continued development and further scale the business globally,” the private equity firm said in a statement.
The acquisition represents an EV / Revenue multiple of 8.1 times, and EV / Adjusted EBITDA multiple of 34.2 times the Darktrace Group’s revenue of $616 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $146 million for the twelve months ending December 31, 2023, respectively.
Related: Cyber Firm Darktrace Shares Surge on Possible Takeover
