Contact: Brenon Daly
After focusing its recent M&A activity on rounding out existing portfolio companies, buyout shop Thoma Bravo made another ‘platform play’ on Monday, offering $395m for Keynote Systems. Under terms, the private equity firm will pay $20 per share, or a total of $395m, for the 18-year-old testing and measurement vendor.
The deal, which is expected to close by September, comes at a time when Keynote is struggling to put up growth. Business across its two operating units – the core Internet measurement products as well as the newer mobile testing offerings – have both been flat so far this fiscal year. Further, the company has seen its operating and net income drop this year as some customers have recently narrowed Keynote projects or put them off.
The price Thoma Bravo is paying reflects the operating challenges at Keynote, which traded above the $20 bid for much of 2011. The dividend-paying company holds nearly $60m in cash and short-term investments. Backing out that amount from the $395m equity value for Keynote gives an enterprise value of $335m, or about 2.7 times the $125m in trailing sales the company has put up.
Keynote’s valuation of 2.7x sales is almost exactly the midpoint of Thoma Bravo’s two previous take-privates, the $195m buyout of Mediware Information Systems last September and the $1bn acquisition of Deltek in August. Since those LBOs, the buyout shop has been busy doing deals to bulk up its portfolio companies, including two follow-on acquisitions for Mediware as well as recent bolt-on deals for Blue Coat Systems, LANDesk Software and Tripwire.
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