Security awareness training company KnowBe4 will go private after being acquired by Vista Equity Partners for roughly $4.6 billion in cash.
KnowBe4 first announced receiving an offer from the private equity firm in mid-September.
The companies announced on Wednesday that they have entered into a definitive agreement, with KnowBe4 stockholders set to receive $24.90 per share in cash, which represents a 44% premium over KnowBe4’s closing price on September 16, when news of a potential deal came to light.
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2023.
KnowBe4 provides a security awareness training and simulated phishing platform used by more than 52,000 organizations worldwide to teach their employees to identify attacks involving malware and social engineering.
This is the second major acquisition announced this week. Identity and access management (IAM) solutions provider ForgeRock will become a private company following its acquisition by Thoma Bravo for $2.3 billion in cash.
Data collected by SecurityWeek shows that more than a dozen cybersecurity-related M&A deals involved private equity companies to date this year.
Related: SecurityWeek Analysis: Over 230 Cybersecurity M&A Deals Announced in First Half of 2022
Related: Security Awareness Training Firm KnowBe4 Raises $300 Million
Related: Immersive Labs Raises $66 Million for Cyber Workforce Resilience Platform
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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