SolarWinds (SWI) Boosts N-able Sales, Marketing, R&D Push

SolarWinds (SWI) is “ramping up recently acquired N-able” in order to attract more MSPs (managed services providers) to the RMM (remote monitoring and management) platform. Indeed, SolarWinds described its overall business strategy and the N-able focus during a financial analyst day earlier this month in Boston. So what’s the upshot?

Overall, the news seems very good for N-able’s MSPs. Back in October 2013, SolarWinds described accelerating revenues for N-able, which the company acquired in May 2013. Most of the recent strategy involves a “do no harm” approach — meaning SolarWinds has trusted N-able GM JP Jauvin to run the business division without micro management from the parent organization.

But more recently, SolarWinds has started to describe how some of its technologies — including help desk software — will increasingly integrate with N-able’s portfolio. During the November analyst day, SolarWinds also said it was committed to “growing new N-able business 100%+ yr-yr (aided by owning 12.0 vs 7.5 months),” according to a research note from Baird Equity Research.

SolarWinds itself has been in growth mode, but Wall Street has been a bit disappointed from time to time this year with the company’s top-line revenues. Also, N-able represents 7 percent of SolarWinds’ overall revenues, Baird Equity Research estimates.

M&A Moves

This is a particularly important time for N-able and its MSP base. The RMM software market has seen multiple mergers and acquisitions in recent months. A few examples:

Amid those market dynamics, SolarWinds’ strategy for N-able has been rather simple to explain: Invest to accelerate the business.