Latest M&A: IBM, Zscaler, EarthLink, More

Private equity managerClayton Dubilier & Rice, also known as CD&R, announced on April 2 acquiring majority ownership in solutions provider giant Presidio. The share acquisition happened as part of a deal with BC Partners, who acquired the company in 2019 and pulled them from the Nasdaq as part of a $2.1 billion deal.

Presidio has expanded into cloud services since the 2019 transaction and had significant financial growth since.

“CD&R is an experienced technology investor with a longstanding track record of applying an operational mindset to build businesses with enduring value, and our leadership team and I are excited to welcome CD&R as Presidio’s new investment partner,” said Bob Cagnazzi, CEO of Presidio. “We remain committed to growing by continuing to deliver high-quality technology solutions and services to help our customers deliver impactful outcomes through the strategic use of technology. The technology depth of our Presidio team, along with the operating expertise of CD&R and continued support of BC Partners, will help us execute on our ongoing business evolution to deliver world-class solutions to customers, drive deeper relationships with our technology ecosystem partners, and create opportunities for our employees worldwide.” 

To learn more about CD&R's deal, click here.

Evergreen announced on April 9 that it was acquiring UK-based MSP Digital Origin as the latest in its stream of MSP acquisitions. The company has a large portfolio of companies under its belt, including more than 80 acquisitions in the last few years.

Digital Origin, which specializes in a connectivity-as-a-service (CaaS) business model, will be its second purchase in the United Kingdom since the acquisition of The Final Step in 2023.

The partnership “will catalyse shared benefits and mutual support for Evergreen and Digital Origin," the company claimed.

You can learn more about this purchase and its implications for customers overseas here.

Atlanta-based internet service provider EarthLink announced in early April that it was acquiring BroadAspect and its fiber-optic and wireless assets.

The deal is intended to help the company shore up its assets across the East Coast. It's the latest acqusition by the company, as it made three others in 2023.

BroadAspect, in contrast, will maintain its narrow focus on managed IT and cybersecurity services. The company partners with VMware, Dell, Fortinet and Veeam and defines itself as a "cloud and network services provider." Its BroadAspect Cloud Reseller Program relies on the VMware cloud platform.

"We see a partner in EarthLink, one with a reputation for successful mergers in the business connectivity space and a high standard for customer service," BroadAspect founder and CEO Chris Chamberlain said. "EarthLink's nationwide reach, engineering and support will bring our customers' experiences to the next level as they continue to develop their business partnerships."

Learn more about this deal here.

Cloud hosting platform Colohouse successfully acquired bare metal hosting provider Hivelocity.

The decision will allow Colohouse to provide full-service hybrid cloud products, as well as automation across private infrastructure and improved talent for its products.

"Our acquisition of Hivelocity is a strategic move to enhance our capabilities and reinforce our commitment to delivering top-tier IT infrastructure services," said Jeremy Pease, CEO at Colohouse. "Together, Colohouse and Hivelocity create a unique, next-generation provider that places the customer’s needs and success at the forefront, providing them with the connectivity and computing power required to deploy and manage modern applications and data.

To learn more about Colohouse's acquisition, click here.

Cloudflare acquired Baselim, a cloud-native observatbility platform.

The acquisition will allow the company to integrate the observability technology with Baselim's developer platform. This will allow Cloudflare users to combine its understanding of serverless platforms alongside developer experience in order to allow developers to better understand how their data is being used.

“Two million developers building on Cloudflare trust us to help scale their apps globally, but can still struggle to understand the behavior of their cloud applications,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO, Cloudflare. “We believe that to be the leading developer platform, having the best observability tools built in is going to be table-stakes. Baselime has raised the standard for serverless observability and we can further unlock those insights for every developer building on our platform.”

You can learn more about Cloudflare's deal here.

Wiz, the unified security platform, finalized its acquisition of Gem Security, a cloud detection and response (CDR) provider. The company said that it intends to add Gem Security's CDR software solutions to its cloud-native application protection platform, significantly advancing its capabilities as a provider.

“Today’s Gem news underscores the increased opportunity partners have to add value,” Bill Masturzo, Wiz’s regional vice president of cloud strategy, said. “Gem has a world-class detection and response offering that — like Wiz — is truly built for the cloud era. That is our competitive differentiator, and together with our partners we can now transform security operations the way that Wiz has already transformed CNAPP."

Gem Security's CDR software centralizes real-time visibility into multicloud environments and provides automated incident timelines to understand the root causes of cloud breaches.

You can learn more about what Wiz's acquisition and its growth mean for your company here.

Zscaler announced the acquisition of Airgap Networks, a provider of cybersecurity solutions for business-critical networks. The vendor said it was combining its zero-trust SD-WAN with Airgap's agentless segmentation technology, a decision that it claims will change how enterprises implement zero-trust segmentation to IoT/OT devices, and critical infrastructure across branches, campuses, factories and data centers, including east-west connectivity.

The new options made available through Airgap's purchase will be "available to all of our channel partners,” Naresh Kumar, Zscaler's VP and general manager of product management, said. “We believe that these strong and unique capabilities will provide additional opportunities for our channel partners to pursue fully integrated end-to-end zero trust SASE solutions from a single leading vendor.”

You can learn more about Zscaler's purchase here.

Commvault acquired cloud cyber resilience company Appranix in hopes of strengthening its data protection abilities for its clients.

Appranix's addition to Commvault will allow it to automate several parts of the data recovery after a ransomware attack for its clients. These parts include networking, DNS configuration, application load balancing and security group access.

“We are taking resilience to the next level by marrying Commvault’s extensive risk, readiness and recovery capabilities with Appranix’s next-generation cloud-native rebuild capabilities,” said Sanjay Mirchandani, president and CEO, Commvault. “We are delighted to welcome Appranix to the Commvault family.”

Learn more about Commvault's acquisition here.

Veeam Software, the backup and disaster recovery company, acquired cyber-extortion response specialist Coveware.

The acquisition will allow Veeam's customers access to Coveware's ransomware and first response cabilities to protect against ransomware attacks. These protections include forensic triage, extortion negotiation and remediation, cryptocurrency settlements and decryption services.

“It’s no longer a question of when your organization is attacked, but how often,” said Veeam CEO Anand Eswaran. “Seventy-six percent of organizations have been attacked over the past 12 months, and addressing that cyber threat is critical for every enterprise."

Coveware's addition will provide “proactive threat intelligence that helps identify any security gaps with forensic triage and decryption.”

Learn more about Veeam's acquisition of Coveware here.

IBM confirmed rumors on April 24 that it was buying multicloud infrastructure automation company HashiCorp for an estimated $6.4 billion.

IBM's acquisition of HashiCorp reflects its "deep focus and investment" in AI and the hybrid cloud, the company said. The purchase will provide IBM with the infrastructure and security life-cycle management tools required to help businesses automate their hybrid and multicloud needs.

Multicloud management tools are becoming increasingly necessary as cloud servers become a more common tool, a tool that they see necessary.

"Our strategy at its core is about enabling companies to innovate in the cloud while providing a consistent approach to managing cloud at scale," said Armon Dadgar, HashiCorp co-founder and chief technology officer. "The need for effective management and automation is critical with the rise of multicloud and hybrid cloud, which is being accelerated by today's AI revolution," he said.

You can learn more about IBM's acquisition of HashiCorp here.

KnowBe4, the cybersecurity vendor, unveiled plans to acquire integration partner Egress, a company that provides adaptive and integrated cloud email security. The acquisition will let them launch an AI-driven cybersecurity platform to help manage human risk.

Egress is known for its Intelligent Email Security suite. The suite provides AI-enabled security tools that will help partners prevent, protect and defend organizations against sophisticated email-based cybersecurity threats.

The acquisition will allow KnowBe4 to provide its partners with a single platform that aggregates threat intelligence, offers AI-based email security, and trains users according to appropriate risk levels.

“This [acquisition] allows partners to expand their offerings and include a more robust offering for human risk management,” Tony Jennings, the executive VP of international and global channel sales at KnowBe4, said. “Minimally it offers them an expansion of their portfolio offerings and equips the partners to engage with new buyers and AI-focused security.

Users can learn more about KnowBe4's purchase here.

After a failed deal in 2022, Thoma Bravo finally set up an agreement to acquire global cybersecurity provider Darktrace. The company reached a deal with Darktrace's board of directors, allowing it to take the company private.

“Darktrace is at the very cutting edge of cybersecurity technology, and we have long been admirers of its platform and capability in AI,” said Andrew Almeida, partner at Thoma Bravo, the private equity firm known for its gobbling of technology companies in recent years. “The pace of innovation in cybersecurity is accelerating in response to cyber threats that are simultaneously complex, global and sophisticated. Darktrace is driven by a culture of innovation and we are excited by the opportunity to work alongside Darktrace’s team and accelerate its development into a scaled, global leader, further strengthening its capability and offer to customers. Thoma Bravo has been investing exclusively in software for over 20 years and we will bring to bear the full range of our platform, operational expertise and deep experience of cybersecurity in supporting Darktrace’s growth.”

Learn more about Thoma Bravo's acquisition of Darktrace here.

After a failed deal in 2022, Thoma Bravo finally set up an agreement to acquire global cybersecurity provider Darktrace. The company reached a deal with Darktrace's board of directors, allowing it to take the company private.

“Darktrace is at the very cutting edge of cybersecurity technology, and we have long been admirers of its platform and capability in AI,” said Andrew Almeida, partner at Thoma Bravo, the private equity firm known for its gobbling of technology companies in recent years. “The pace of innovation in cybersecurity is accelerating in response to cyber threats that are simultaneously complex, global and sophisticated. Darktrace is driven by a culture of innovation and we are excited by the opportunity to work alongside Darktrace’s team and accelerate its development into a scaled, global leader, further strengthening its capability and offer to customers. Thoma Bravo has been investing exclusively in software for over 20 years and we will bring to bear the full range of our platform, operational expertise and deep experience of cybersecurity in supporting Darktrace’s growth.”

Learn more about Thoma Bravo's acquisition of Darktrace here.