Thoma Bravo | Press Releases

Thoma Bravo Selling Tripwire to Belden for $710M

Written by Thoma Bravo | December 10, 2014

(c) 2014 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Thoma Bravo agreed to sell Tripwire Inc ., a developer and provider of cybersecurity software and services, to publicly traded Belden Inc . for $710 million, according to a news release.

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015. Thoma Bravo declined to discuss further terms of the deal.

The Portland, Ore., company serves customers in the financial services, retail, energy, health-care and pharmaceutical, industrial, government and media industries.

Belden worked with Ropes & Gray LLP as its legal adviser on the deal. The St. Louis company is a provider of end-to-end transmission services and products for mission-critical manufacturing applications.

Tripwire announced last week it had growth of 29% for the third quarter , compared with year-earlier results. The company is expected to have $165 million in adjusted revenue and roughly $53 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization this year, in 2015, according to Belden’s news release.

Revenue is expected to increase to $195 million in 2016 and $235 million in 2017, according to presentation from Belden regarding the acquisition.

More than half of Tripwire’s revenue is a result of the renewal of existing licenses, according to the Belden conference call about the acquisition. Tripwire has a more than 90% renewal rate and adds more than 400 new customers a year.

Thoma Bravo acquired Tripwire from previous venture capital firms, includingAdvanced Technology Ventures , AmBex Venture Group, Bessemer Venture Partners , Industry Ventures and Institutional Venture Partners , for an undisclosed sum in May 2011.

Before Thoma Bravo’s acquisition, Tripwire had filed for an $86.3 million initial public offering, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission .

Thoma Bravo, which has offices in Chicago and San Francisco, made the investment from its $825 million Thoma Bravo Fund IX LP , which closed in 2009. The firm typically invests at least $50 million to $300 million of equity in companies with more than $20 million in annual Ebitda.

Last year, Tripwire acquired nCircle Network Security Inc. , a venture-backed provider of software for compliance, risk and security management, for an undisclosed sum.