A global investment firm, KKR announced that the company has signed a definitive agreement under which KKR’s investment funds will purchase Barracuda Networks, a cloud-first security solutions provider, from Thoma Bravo, a software investment firm. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to customary conditions.
Next-generation of cybersecurity solutions
With the acquisition, Barracuda will implement KKR’s broad-based employee ownership program. The program makes employees owners in their businesses alongside KKR. The belief behind the strategy is that employee engagement is a key driver of a company’s success. With this strategy, KKR has awarded billions of dollars of total equity value to over 45,000 non-management employees across more than 25 companies since 2011.
Barracuda Networks, founded in 2003, is the provider of a broad broad suite of cybersecurity solutions including email protection, application security, network security, and data protection that support both cloud and hybrid environments. Barracuda mainly focuses on serving small and medium-sized enterprises and currently has over 200,000 customers worldwide. Hatem Naguib, CEO of Barracuda said,
« We believe that with the support of KKR, we will continue to invest in growth and foster a culture that gives our team the resources and inspiration to continue to create and deliver the next generation of leading cybersecurity solutions for our customers and partners. We are very appreciative of Thoma Bravo’s support and very excited to be working with KKR on this next phase of Barracuda’s journey. »