Silver Lake, Thoma Bravo Purchase SolarWinds for $4.5 Billion

Private equity firms Thoma Bravo and Silver Lake Partners acquired SolarWinds N-Able for $4.5 billion on Wednesday, making the IT management software developer the latest technology company to become privately owned.

Stockholders will receive $60.10 per share for their investment, marking a 19.7 percent increase on SolarWinds’ Tuesday closing price, according to Reuters.

The deal is expected to help the Austin, Texas-based company to reverse recent financial challenges to its licensing business, which led to a decrease in SolarWinds’ annual revenue outlook earlier this year. Reuters reported that the company was in talks to sell off its business late last week.

“This transaction recognizes the strength of our unique business model and provides our shareholders with immediate and substantial cash value at a compelling premium,” said SolarWinds CEO Kevin B. Thompson, according to CNBC. “Becoming a private company will provide SolarWinds with optimal operating flexibility to execute on its long-term strategy of providing superior products for IT and dev ops pros all over the world.”

The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2016, although a specific date has not been set. The agreement has already been approved by SolarWinds’ board of directors, according to CNBC.

Both Silver Lake Partners and Thoma Bravo have a history of purchasing big-name IT companies, with Silver Lake playing a critical role in Dell’s $67 billion purchase of EMC last week. Thoma Bravo also completed its acquisition of Riverbed Technology in April after announcing that it would purchase the infrastructure and networking solutions vendor for $3.6 billion last year.

Last week, SolarWinds launched its new remote control access and support platform to help MSPs deliver repairs to customer systems from a central location.