Symantec have made a grab for BlueCoat Systems. Symantec’s press release wants to portray this as an attempt to redefine cybersecurity for the future. The boards of both companies agree to this deal. The deal is worth $4.65bn, paid in cash to BlueCoat’s venture backers, Bain Capital.
Symantec will also gain Greg Clark as CEO. Symantec will be funding this through cash they already have and $2.8bn of new debt. They expect the synergies and improved cash flow from the joint organisation to fund this debt over the coming years.
Symantec wants to focus on three points when the merger completes.
- Protecting customers against more cyber threats.
- Help enterprises securely embrace the cloud.
- Bring together a formidable scale of investment in cyber R&D and threat research.
“With this transaction, we will have the scale, portfolio and resources necessary to usher in a new era of innovation designed to help protect large customers and individual consumers against insider threats and sophisticated cybercriminals. Together, we will be best positioned to address the ever-evolving threat landscape, the massive changes introduced by the shift to mobile and cloud, and the challenges created by regulatory and privacy concerns. Greg and the entire Blue Coat leadership team have done an exceptional job of strengthening, growing and scaling their business. In addition to a proven track record of delivering scale and profitable growth, Greg brings significant leadership experience, deep security expertise and a history of successfully integrating companies into a single portfolio; he is the right person to lead Symantec as we advance our position as the leader in cybersecurity.” – Dan Schulman, Chairman, Symantec
This follows just under a year since Bain Capital purchased Blue Coat from Thoma Bravo, and represents a gain of 1.93x over their investment. This is most certainly easier than preparing for a tech IPO in an uncertain market.