Sophos partners hail Apax takeover
Resellers welcome private equity move
Rafferty claims taking the private equity option will allow Sophos to grow faster
Resellers have backed Sophos’s decision not to float on the stock market following its majority takeover by Apax Partners.
The endpoint security vendor last week agreed to sell a 70 per cent stake to private equity giant Apax in a deal that will net founders Dr Jan Hruska and Peter Lammer $300m (£197m).
Sophos had also been mulling over an IPO, but UK country manager Ciaran Rafferty said that the funds Apax has agreed to pump in would hand it a larger warchest for organic and acquisitive growth.
“Apax was the most logical decision,” he said. “When we looked at NASDAQ and New York there was a limit to how fast they allow you to invest. We wanted to invest faster for growth for Sophos and our partners.”
Rafferty also hailed the move as “fantastic news for the channel”. Hruska and Lammer have retained a “decent-sized” stake in the firm, he added.
“There will be no senior management changes, so it will be business as usual in terms of the channel,” he said.
Shaune Parsons, managing director of Sophos partner Computer World Wales, said an IPO would have drained Sophos’s resources.
“With a private equity company hopefully there will be investment there,” he said.
Paul Prior, managing director of Sophos partner Foursys, said: “If a finance house as well known as Apax is putting significant capital into Sophos it will give continuity to the product and its future development.”