PE firms wrap up Riverbed's acquisition

MUMBAI, INDIA: Thoma Bravo, a private equity investment firm, and Teachers’ Private Capital, the private investor department of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, have completed their acquisition of Riverbed Technology, Inc., a player in application performance infrastructure.

The acquisition is valued at approximately $3.5 billion, with Riverbed stockholders receiving $21.00 per share in cash. With the transaction’s close, Riverbed stock has ceased trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol RVBD.

“Riverbed is a clear industry leader and significant addition to our portfolio of software companies,” said Seth Boro, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo. “Our team is looking forward to building upon Riverbed’s world class customer support and delivering its market-leading product portfolio to even more enterprise customers.”

“With this acquisition now complete, our team can begin to move forward with the strategic initiatives that will take us to the next stage of growth,” said Jerry M. Kennelly, chairman and CEO of Riverbed. “As a private company, Riverbed is better positioned to pursue our long term goals, and has greater flexibility to develop best-of breed technologies that deliver superior application performance for our customers. This flexibility, alongside Thoma Bravo’s deep experience growing companies in the application performance space, makes us very excited about the future.”

“We’re pleased to have the opportunity to partner with Jerry and the entire Riverbed team.” said Robert Sayle, a partner at Thoma Bravo. “The application performance sector is poised to see even greater advances in the coming years, and we look forward to helping Riverbed realize its tremendous growth potential.”

For Riverbed, Qatalyst Partners and Goldman, Sachs & Co. served as financial advisors, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Professional Corporation served as the company’s legal advisor. Kirkland & Ellis served as legal advisor to Thoma Bravo; and Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley served as financial advisors on the transaction.