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Centrify, an established star in the enterprise security software business and the technology behind Samsung’s on-device Knox identity and access management platform, has simplified the financial foundation for its business.
Thoma Bravo, a high-profile private equity investment firm, on July 10 announced it will acquire a majority interest in Centrify from its venture capital investors, led by Mayfield, Accel Partners, Jackson Square Ventures and Index Ventures. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year; financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
“While we loved our venture capital partners, it is a lot simpler and easier to run the business when you’re dealing with one big checkbook,” CEO Tom Kemp told eWEEK. “TB is very experienced at this, especially in the security sector, and having them as our backers gives us a lot of flexibility in how we operate going forward. They’ve taken companies to successful exits, including IPOs, so we’ll see where this takes us.”
According to the 2018 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, compromised user identities is the top cybersecurity attack vector, and with the shift to cloud computing by enterprises, cloud security risks such as password sprawl and privileged access management are expected to accelerate.
Centrify’s software addresses these issues as the only leader in both the Forrester Wave Privileged Identity Management (PIM) and Identity-As-A-Service (IDaaS) reports. By converging these solutions into a unified Next-Gen Access platform for Zero Trust Security, Centrify believes it is well-positioned as an early entrant and cybersecurity innovator of next-generation technology that protects its customers’ assets and access to information from external and internal cyber threats, Kemp said.
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., Centrify serves more than 5,000 customers spanning the public and private sectors, including blue-chip Global 2000s, across diverse industries including defense, banking, energy, retail, manufacturing and health care.
Thoma Bravo, an established investor in enterprise security software, has successfully partnered with other innovators in the growing identity space, including Bomgar and SailPoint.
For more information on the deal and Centrify’s strategy, go here.