Progress entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Ipswitch, Inc. for $225 million in cash.
Progress will fund the transaction with existing cash on hand and funds secured under a new credit facility. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to both non-GAAP earnings per share and cash flow. The acquisition will bolster Progress’ core offerings to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and enterprises, enabling those businesses to respond faster to business demands and to improve productivity.
Founded in 1991, Ipswitch serves approximately 24,000 customers in 170 countries. Ipswitch targets IT professionals and CTOs at SMBs and enterprises across a variety of industries. Ipswitch has approximately $75 million in revenue, of which 75% is recurring. Ipswitch has blue-chip customers across all verticals, including finance and banking, healthcare, insurance, retail, government and biotech.
Yogesh Gupta, CEO of Progress, said: “Progress and Ipswitch have a common legacy of enabling businesses to solve mission-critical challenges with efficient, easy-to-use solutions.”
Gupta continued, “We’ve been saying for more than a year now that accretive M&A is an important part of our strategy. Ipswitch is exactly the type of acquisition we’ve been targeting to drive increased scale and cash flows. This acquisition meets all of our disciplined acquisition criteria and will provide excellent returns to our shareholders.”
Michael Grossi, CEO of Ipswitch, added: “We expect this new chapter with Progress to provide even greater opportunities for our combined customers, partners and employees.”
The acquisition is expected to close in late April, subject to obtaining regulatory consents and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. Progress expects to fund a portion of the purchase price with debt, and the company will provide further details regarding the funding and debt structure after the transaction is closed.
Atlas Technology Group acted as financial advisor to Ipswitch in connection with the transaction. Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP served as Progress' legal counsel and Latham & Watkins LLP served as Ipswitch’s legal counsel with respect to the transaction.
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