SolarWinds Worldwide LLC has officially filed for an initial public offering aimed at raising up to $500 million.
Based in Austin, Texas, SolarWinds makes an extensive array of network and cloud management solutions. It is currently owned by private equity investor Thoma Bravo LLC, which bought the company along with Silver Lake Partners for some $4.5 billion in February 2016. Word of an impending IPO involving SolarWinds first arrived in June, when the company submitted a draft registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Returning to public ownership will have no effect on businesses that buy from SolarWinds, according to John Pagliuca, general manager of SolarWinds MSP, a SolarWinds division that makes management, backup, and security solutions for managed service providers.
“It will not impact our customers one bit,” said Pagliuca in a conversation with ChannelPro last week at SolarWinds MSP’s Empower MSP conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. “They’ll have a window with the rest of the world into the financial health and the financial results of the business. Other than that, nothing will change. Nothing will change on what our mission is. Nothing will change on how we run the business. Nothing will change on how we value that partnership, how we push that partnership, or how we go to market.”
Thoma Bravo acquired managed services software and service provider Continuum in June of last year and security/backup vendor Barracuda Networks Inc. this February. Fellow private investor Vista Equity Partners, meanwhile, purchased Datto Inc. last October, and merged it with Autotask Corp., another of its properties.
Even more recently, IT management software vendor Kaseya Ltd. has leveraged the deep pockets of private owner Insight Venture Partners to purchase BDR vendor Unitrends Inc. and security vendor RapidFire Tools Inc. At least three additional acquisitions will be announced in coming months, according to Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola.
