Thoma Bravo Completes Riverbed Acquisition

Private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo and Teacher’s Private Capital have completed their acquisition of Riverbed Technology, and the company has officially ceased trading on the NASDAQ under the RVBD symbol.

“Riverbed is a clear industry leader and significant addition to our portfolio of software companies,” said Seth Boro, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo, in a statement. “Our team is looking forward to building upon Riverbed’s world-class customer support and delivering its market-leading product portfolio to even more enterprise customers.”

Thoma Bravo announced the $3.6 billion acquisition in December, with Riverbed stockholders receiving $21 per share in cash, according to the announcement. Riverbed chairman and CEO Jerry Kennelly said the company’s repositioning as a private company will help the application performance infrastructure vendor explore new opportunities without the restrictions normally placed on public enterprises.

“As a private company, Riverbed is better positioned to pursue our long-term goals, and has greater flexibility to develop best-of breed technologies that deliver superior application performance for our customers,” said Kennelly. “This flexibility, alongside Thoma Bravo’s deep experience growing companies in the application performance space, makes us very excited about the future.”

In February, Brocade (BRCD) acquired Riverbed’s SteelApp application delivery controller business in an all-cash deal. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Brocade plans to take possession of the SteelApp business in May, when it will be folded into the company’s Software Business Unit.

“We’re pleased to have the opportunity to partner with Jerry and the entire Riverbed team,” said Robert Sayle, a partner at Thoma Bravo. “The application performance sector is poised to see even greater advances in the coming years, and we look forward to helping Riverbed realize its tremendous growth potential.”