WatchGuard's new owner vows to 'double down' on MSPs

It was announced in April that Vector Capital had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the interests of other shareholders, including Francisco Partners

Vector Capital has finalised its acquisition of security vendor WatchGuard and says it will "double down" on its focus on MSPs.

It was announced in April that Vector Capital was to become the majority owner of the network security firm by acquiring the interests of other shareholders, including Francisco Partners.

IPW, a European fund focused on investments in software companies and a previous investor in WatchGuard, also retains its interest in the company.

"Vector Capital has been an excellent partner over the last decade, and is intimately familiar with the company, employees, partners and our vision to be the security provider of choice to the MSP community," said Prakash Panjwani, CEO of WatchGuard Technologies.

"We have already had great successes together, and with this renewed investment, we are doubling down on empowering the MSP community with increased growth and platform innovation."

WatchGuard's Unified Security Platform currently enables more than 17,000 MSPs to protect the environments, users and networks of more than 250,000 businesses worldwide, it claims.

Vector says its focus will now be on driving further growth by accelerating the company's capabilities across cloud transformation, secure access service edge (SASE), extended detection and response (XDR), managed detection and response (MDR), along with further innovation in security automation and simplification for MSPs.

"We believe that WatchGuard is uniquely positioned to take advantage of two major market forces - the rise of the MSP as the dominant and fastest growing source of cybersecurity, and the maturation of platform-based security offerings that enable clients to embrace SASE and XDR functionality," said Sandy Gill, managing director of Vector Capital.

"The company's success and value are testaments to the tremendous demand for MSP-delivered advanced security services.

"WatchGuard's technology, team and partner ecosystem have set a new standard for security delivery and we are committed to ensuring that WatchGuard has the resources to continue leading the cybersecurity landscape for years to come."