MSPs On ... The ConnectWise Buyout

On Monday, MSP management software provider ConnectWise announced it had accepted a buyout offer from private equity firm Thoma Bravo.

ConnectWise, among the first and certainly the largest provider of professional services automation (PSA) solutions, has found itself in increasingly lonely territory in its refusal to date to accept institutional capital. It’s the last among the PSA/RMM market leaders to do so, joining Continuum and SolarWinds in the Thoma Bravo portfolio. Vista Equity Partners acquired Datto in 2017 and merged it with ConnectWise competitor Autotask, and RMM provider Kaseya was bought by Insight Venture Partners in 2013.

Partners showed a range of reactions to the news. Some worried about the institutional changes the deal would bring, others were excited about prospects of improved products and support, and many raised a metaphorical glass to CEO Arnie Bellini, who surely cleaned up. (Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but general estimates place the buyout figure above $1 billion.)

Click through the slides above to see what managed service providers had to say about the ConnectWise announcement.