Contact: Brenon Daly
Former IPO hopeful Sophos will stay private (at least for the time being), but will have a new owner, the anti-malware company said. The new majority holder is Apax Partners, having picked up a 70% stake from both TA Associates, which had been a minority shareholder since 2002, and Sophos’ two founders. The purchase put an overall price tag of $830m on Sophos.
The sale comes after much speculation that Sophos, which had filed to go public in November 2007, was once again looking for an IPO. In fall 2009, British media reports indicated Sophos was planning an offering in 2010 that would have valued the company at about $1bn. Instead, Sophos is taking what we would consider a multiple at the low end of the range, even though the company’s size and recent growth rate might imply an above-market valuation.
Sophos indicated it recorded billings of $330m and revenue of $260m for its fiscal year, which ended March 31. On a trailing basis, that works out to just 2.5 times bookings and 3.2 times sales. Assuming Sophos continued growing at a 19% rate for the current fiscal year, it would have finished this year with about $310m in sales. That means Apax is valuing Sophos at just 2.7 times projected revenue.
Other security companies that have danced on and around the public stage have recently fetched much richer valuations, at least in one key measure. Encryption vendor PGP garnered four times trailing revenue in last week’s sale to Symantec. While PGP may or may not have been planning to go public, the most recent security IPO does trade at a notable premium to the valuation Sophos just got in its sale. Unified threat management vendor Fortinet currently commands a $1.25bn market capitalization, which works out to 4.9 times trailing sales.