With Rising Cybersecurity Fears, Bain Capital Acquires Blue Coat Systems
Blue Coat’s previous owner agreed to sell the company for $2.4 billion in an all-cash deal after taking it private in 2012 for $1.3 billion.
Bain Capital said it will pay $2.4 billion in cash to acquire Blue Coat Systems, a provider of cybersecurity software. The private-equity giant hopes to eventually return Blue Coat, which went private in 2012, back to the public markets.
SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Blue Coat Systems has been acquired by Bain Capital for $2.4 billion in a deal that reportedly prepares the network security company to go public again.
The Silicon Valley company was taken private by San Francisco-based Thoma Bravo in a February 2012 deal valued at $1.3 billion.
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The sale came after a competitive bidding process run by Goldman Sachs Group. Blue Coat’s products help speed up data flow over the Internet while blocking inappropriate websites and cyber attacks.
The company claims to be used by 80% of the Fortune 500 and said it blocks more than 3 million threats a day.
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“Bain Capital has a long history of accelerating growth, and I look forward to partnering with them in our journey to be one of the top performing security companies in the world,” Blue Coat CEO Greg Clark said in a press release.
David Humphrey, a managing director at Bain Capital, said in the same release, “We are excited by the opportunity to work with Blue Coat’s world-class management team to grow the business organically and through acquisitions, and to ultimately return the company to the public markets.”
Blue Coat bought several companies after it was taken private, including anti-malware company Norman Shark, security analytics company Solera Networks, and SSL technology from Netronome which helps inspect Internet traffic.
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