Francisco Partners acquires Blancco for £175m

The deal finalised at 223p/share and as a result Blancco has ceased trading and is no longer on the London stock market

Private equity firm, Francisco Partners, has completed the all-cash acquisition of Blancco for 223p/share, representing an equity valuation of approximately £175m.

As a result of the completion of the transaction, Blancco has ceased trading and is no longer listed on the London stock market.

Blancco provides products for organisations to protect end-of-life data against unauthorised access, safely redeploy data storage assets, and comply with increased data protection and privacy requirements.

"Since its founding 26 years ago, Blancco has created and delivered innovative solutions, with a focus on building a world class data eraser and diagnostic software platform," said Matt Jones, CEO of Blancco.

"We are pleased to partner with Francisco Partners, who are committed to continuing to build upon the company's strong foundation and achieve its full potential. I want to thank each employee for their dedication to Blancco and contributing to our continued success."

Brian Decker, partner at Francisco Partners, and Karl Shum, principal at the firm, said: "We have been very impressed with the leading market position that Blancco has established through its best-in-class solutions and are thrilled to partner with Blancco's management team to drive the next phase of expansion."

In June 2023, Blancco made the news as it updated its global partner programme to strengthen its commitment to the channel.

The group explained that, as the market continues to deal with security, compliance and sustainability issues related to the growth in data in their environment, Blancco sees an opportunity to take its leadership position within the asset lifecycle market to deliver tangible security and compliance value within the data lifecycle.

Through its channel partners, Blannco aimed to grow enterprise deals from 50 per cent to more than 70 per cent to fuel a doubling of its enterprise business in the next 2-3 years.

To meet this objective, the group committed to a 200 per cent increase in its channel investment in the areas of headcount, platform investments, programme funding and joint marketing.