Mimecast on Tuesday announced that private equity firm Permira wants to acquire it in an all-cash transaction that values the email security company at roughly $5.8 billion.
Permira, which plans on taking Mimecast private, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all of its outstanding ordinary shares for $80 per share.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2022, but there will be a go-shop period until January 6, 2022, until which a special committee will “actively initiate, solicit, encourage, and evaluate alternative acquisition proposals, and potentially enter into negotiations with any parties that may offer alternative acquisition proposals.”
Permira is part of the group of private equity firms that last month announced an agreement to acquire McAfee and take it private in a $14 billion deal. Permira — along with Advent International — in 2019 reportedly expressed interest in acquiring Symantec’s consumer business for more than $16 billion.
The Wall Street Journal reported in late October that Mimecast had been exploring a possible sale, with Proofpoint named as one potential buyer. Proofpoint was taken private by private equity firm Thoma Bravo in a $12.3 billion deal in April.
Mimecast reported nearly $150 million in revenue and more than $17 million in net income for the second fiscal quarter that ended on September 30. Both revenue and income increased significantly compared to the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.
On its website, the company claims to have more than 1,700 employees and 40,000 customers.
It’s worth noting that Mimecast was one of the several cybersecurity companies targeted by the hackers who breached the systems of IT management solutions provider SolarWinds.
“Today is an exciting milestone for Mimecast as we begin a new chapter for our company,” said Peter Bauer, chairman and CEO of Mimecast. “Our team has done an outstanding job growing and expanding our relationships with customers and innovating our platform. Permira has a strong track record of collaboratively supporting companies’ growth ambitions and strategic goals, and we look forward to working together to further strengthen the cybersecurity and resilience of organizations around the world. This is a great outcome for our company and our shareholders.”
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Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
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