BY Fraser Tennant
In its largest acquisition since the financial crisis, leading global investment firm KKR is to buy BMC Software, a global leader in IT software solutions, in a deal valued at $8.3bn.
BMC is being acquired from a private investor group led by Bain Capital Private Equity and Golden Gate Capital, and includes GIC, Insight Venture Partners and Elliott Management. The group has owned BMC since 2013.
Since then, BMC has reallocated hundreds of millions of dollars toward higher growth R&D and go-to-market initiatives to address the massive digital disruption that is taking place in industries around the globe. Furthermore, the company has helped companies accelerate their cloud adoption.
"With the support and partnership of our investor group, BMC significantly accelerated its innovation of new technologies and new go-to-market capabilities over the past five years," said Peter Leav, president and chief executive of BMC. "Our growth outlook remains strong as BMC is competitively advantaged to continue to invest and win in the marketplace.”
Acquirer KKR has a long record of supporting technology companies, having invested over $26bn in the TMT sector in the last decade. KKR also has experience with a number of enterprise systems software related investments, including Mitchell, Epicor and Calabrio.
"In an ever-changing IT environment that is only becoming more complex, companies that help simplify and manage this essential infrastructure for their enterprise customers play an increasingly important role," said Herald Chen, KKR member and head of the firm's technology, media & telecom (TMT) industry team and John Park, KKR member. "We are thrilled to partner with the talented BMC team to accelerate growth, including via M&A, building on BMC's deep technology expertise and long-standing customer relationships."
Financing for the transaction is being provided by Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Jefferies Finance LLC, Macquarie and Mizuho Bank.
“Customers can expect the BMC team to remain focused on providing innovative solutions and services with our expanding ecosystem of partners to help them succeed across changing enterprise environments,” added Mr Leav. “We are excited to embark on our next chapter with KKR as our partner."
The KKR/BMC transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2018.
News: KKR to acquire PE-backed IT management business BMC in reported $8.3bn deal