by Brenon Daly
Call it a case of mistaken identity in the identity security market. In our exclusive report last week that BeyondTrust was nearing a sale, we speculated that One Identity would be the buyer for the often-in-play company. Instead, Bomgar has announced the purchase of BeyondTrust.
We regret missing the mark, which can be an occupational hazard while working in the opaque regions of the information economy. (Subscribers to 451 Research’s M&A KnowledgeBase can see our proprietary estimates for Bomgar’s acquisition of BeyondTrust by clicking here.)
In our defense, however, we were close. We had the correct family (private equity firm Francisco Partners) albeit the wrong sibling (Francisco-owned One Identity rather than Francisco-owned Bomgar). And, for the record, we have heard from numerous sources that One Identity and BeyondTrust have held in-depth M&A discussions ever since Francisco carved the software business out of Dell, which included the assets that became One Identity.
And while we didn’t necessarily get the right buyer for BeyondTrust right now, it may be a bit academic as far as Francisco is concerned. Longer term, we could well imagine that the PE shop will ultimately combine Bomgar, which it bought in April, with One Identity.
Buyout firms often consolidate holdings as a way to cut expenses and boost all-important cash flow. Admittedly, we’re speculating again. But there’s a lot of financial sense to making the move. If that does come to pass, then we like to think we weren’t wrong about the buyer for BeyondTrust, just early.
For now, though, 451 Research subscribers can look for our full report on Bomgar’s pickup of BeyondTrust on our site later today.
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