Proofpoint announced that it has been acquired by Thoma Bravo for approximately $12.3 billion. Thoma Bravo is a leading private equity firm focused on the software and technology-enabled services sectors, with more than $76 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2020.
“Today’s announcement is a testament to the strength of Proofpoint’s people-centric approach to cybersecurity and compliance and underscores our important role preventing, defending and responding to today’s threats,” said Gary Steele, Chairman and CEO of Proofpoint.
“We have made tremendous strides in expanding the sophistication and scale of our offerings, and in 2020 we generated more than $1 billion in annual revenue – making Proofpoint the first SaaS-based cybersecurity and compliance company to reach that milestone. We believe that as a private company, we can be even more agile with greater flexibility to continue investing in innovation, building on our leadership position and staying ahead of threat actors. Thoma Bravo is an experienced software investor, providing capital and strategic support to technology organizations, and our partnership will accelerate Proofpoint’s growth and scale at an even faster pace. This is an exciting new chapter for Proofpoint that would not have been possible without our employees’ hard work and commitment to our customers, partners and each other,” Steele added.
“Proofpoint has achieved tremendous outcomes for customers around the world, and we’re excited to partner with this talented team at a moment when organizations need innovative solutions to navigate an increasingly treacherous cybersecurity environment,” said Seth Boro, a Managing Partner at Thoma Bravo. “Proofpoint places people at the center of its compliance and security strategy and plays a vital role in helping enterprises protect their data. Thoma Bravo’s approach to value creation is rooted in partnering with the organization in which we invest and looking for opportunities to both enhance their existing operations and build technology platforms that drive significant growth. Proofpoint’s opportunity as a privately held company is incredibly compelling, and we look forward to working closely with them to drive continued business growth and deliver world-class advanced threat protection to even more customers in even more ways.”