Thoma Bravo Gobbles Up RMM Vendor Continuum

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting merger and acquisition news from April.**

Private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo is acquiring Continuum, the Boston-based remote monitoring and management (RMM) vendor. Thoma Bravo made the purchase through its Discover Fund.

Continuum, a global IT management platform provider for about 5,800 managed service providers (MSPs) – servicing more than 60,000 SMB customers – is one of about a half-dozen players in RMM, which is in the midst of consolidation.

“Continuum sets the industry standard with its turnkey approach in the remote monitoring and management market for MSPs,” said A.J. Rohde, a partner at Thoma Bravo. “We know this market well, and have followed the company for a long time. What [CEO] Michael George and his team have delivered on in terms of an innovative product suite and full software-and-services model has been very impressive, and we can’t wait to work with them to accelerate the world-class offering they deliver to MSPs, both organically and through add-on acquisitions.”

Continuum’s RMM product features automated ticketing and alert software that combines with the company’s 24x7x365 network operations center (NOC), propriety software IntelliMon, and certified technicians. Continuum also offers backup and disaster recovery (BDR), and mobile-device management products.

Just last month, Continuum, announced the availability of Continuum Network Management by Auvik, a solution that provides MSPs insight and visibility into their clients’ IT environments. This announcement follows a partnership agreement announced last September.

“Thoma Bravo is the perfect financial and strategic partner for us at this important stage of our company’s growth,” said Michael George, CEO at Continuum. “This investment will enable us to continue to capitalize on our core value propositions and increase critical investments in product development as well as sales and marketing tools for our MSP partners to help accelerate their growth. We are incredibly grateful for the partnership and support we have received from [private equity firm and former Continuum investor] Summit Partners, and are confident that Thoma Bravo’s operational expertise, knowledge of the space and strategic support will be invaluable to us as we focus ambitiously on our company’s future.”

Thoma Bravo has been very active in recent years, acquiring or investing heavily in IT companies such as Dynatrace, McAfee, Qlik, Riverbed and SolarWinds.

Charles Weaver, co-founder and CEO of MSPAlliance, says the Continuum acquisition is another signal of the continued maturation of the managed services tool vendor market.

“This deal should bring greater competition and investment into the tools MSPs use everyday to do their work,” he told us.