Investment giant KKR has agreed to acquire Barracuda Networks from private equity firm Thoma Bravo, the firms announced Tuesday.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but Reuters reported the value to be nearly $4 billion, citing sources familiar with the deal.
Thoma Bravo took Barracuda private in a $1.6 billion deal that was completed in February 2018.
Founded in 2003, Barracuda is best known for its email, web and network security solutions, and counts than 200,000 customers around the world.
During Thoma Bravo’s ownership, the investment firm says Barracuda expanded and enhanced its cybersecurity offerings which led the company to more than $500 million in revenue.
“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.”
“Barracuda has built an impressive portfolio of solutions that are helping SMEs around the world protect their data and address critical security challenges,” said Bradley Brown, Managing Director at KKR. ”We see a tremendous opportunity for long-term growth as these businesses continue to invest more in cybersecurity and we look forward to helping Barracuda scale and deliver next generation products that meet this growing need.”
KKR’s investment in Barracuda adds to other investments it has made in the cybersecurity sector, including Ping, Cylance, DarkTrace, ForgeRock, NetSPI and Optiv, and others.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to customary conditions.
In related M&A activity, Thoma Bravo earlier this week announced plans to spend $6.9 billion to acquire identity and access management firm SailPoint.
Read: SecurityWeek Study: Over 430 Cybersecurity Mergers & Acquisitions Announced in 2021
