Private equity firm Apax Partners has signed a definitive agreement to purchase a majority stake in Sophos, an IT security and data protection provider, from the founders of Sophos and TA Associates, valuing the company at USD830m.
The founders of Sophos will retain a significant minority shareholding.
Sophos provides anti-malware to protect against viruses and spyware; threat management including endpoint firewall, host intrusion detection and prevention; network access control; encryption and data leak prevention.
The company has 100 million users in more than 150 countries, including Cisco, Marks & Spencer, Heinz and Harvard University.
Roy Mackenzie (pictured), a partner in the tech and telecom team at Apax Partners, says: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to back Sophos and its management team as they build a global security market leader. We have been impressed with Sophos’s rapid growth and strong market position and look forward to working with the management team to take the business forward to the next phase of growth”.
Steve Munford, chief executive of Sophos, adds: “It is very exciting to have Apax on board as we embark on the next stage of growth. Security challenges from both external and internal threats continue to grow rapidly. In response, the market is changing from point antivirus to broad suites which provide better protection. Sophos is at the forefront of this trend and its products offer a broad range of functions to tackle security threats which have broadened and increased in volume. Technology security is of utmost importance and upgrading and updating software regularly to provide effective protection against threats is a key annual IT investment for businesses. Together with Apax, I am confident that Sophos will be able to continue its already strong growth.”
