PE firm Thoma Bravo to acquire Blue Coat Systems for $1.3 billion
10 Dec 2011
Internet networking and security products company, Blue Coat Systems (BCSI) yesterday said that it has agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, in a deal valued at $1.3 billion.
Under the all-cash deal, BCSI shareholders will receive $25.81 per share, a premium of about 48 per cent over the stock's closing price on 8 December.
The group of buyers includes the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.
With Goldman Sachs advising on the deal, Sunnyvale, California-based BCSI has recently been reviewing its strategic options, and determined that the Thoma Bravo offer is the best value for shareholders.
BCSI designs, develops, and sells products and services that secure, accelerate, and optimise the delivery of business applications, Web content, and other information to distributed users over a wide area network (WAN) or the public Internet/Web.
Its competitors include Cisco, Websense, McAfee, Fortinet and Check Point.
