Who knew cloud backup was so hot? Storage conglomerate Kaseya is buying Datto out of the hands of private equity for a phenomenal $6.2 billion.
Datto IPO’d in October 2020 with private equity business Vista Equity Partners holding 69 percent of the shares. Datto signalled it was looking for a takeover or another private equity buyer in March and a month later it has succumbed to Kaseya’s advance.
Fred Voccola, Kaseya’s CEO, said in a statement: “Kaseya is known for our outstanding track record of retaining the brands and cultures of the companies we acquire and supercharging product quality. We couldn’t be more excited about what lies before us – Kaseya and Datto will be better together to serve our customers.”
The all-cash transaction will be funded by an equity consortium led by Insight Partners, with significant investment from TPG and Temasek, and participation from other investors including Sixth Street. Under the terms of the agreement, Datto stockholders will receive $35.50 per share in a transaction that values Datto at approximately $6.2 billion. The offer represents a 52 per cent premium to Datto’s stock price of $23.37 on March 16, 2022.
Datto’s current stock price is $34.70, reflecting the Kaseya bid, and its market capitalisation is $5.7 billion.
Kaseya, which was hit by a ransomware attack last year is a portfolio business selling infrastructure management, data protection and security products to SMBs through MSPs. It includes the Unitrends backup business and the Spanning in-cloud backup offering, both of which promise integration opportunities with Datto.
Datto CEO Tim Weller said: ”I’m encouraged by the continued investment in the rapidly-expanding global MSP community, and this transaction is another important validation of the channel.”
The purchase is currently expected to conclude in the second half of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions.
