Headquartered in California, Quest Software has been catering to security-sensitive customers since 1987 with critical software solutions to help them address the evolving risks and security threats
The EMEA headquarters of Quest Software in Cork, Ireland. (Credit: Atadokoro/Wikimedia Commons)
US cybersecurity company Quest Software has agreed to be acquired by Clearlake Capital Group and some of its affiliates in a deal reportedly worth $5.4bn after the inclusion of its debt.
Currently, the company is owned by Francisco Partners.
Following the closing of the deal, Clearlake Capital will become Quest Software’s majority shareholder.
Based in California, Quest Software has been providing critical software solutions since 1987 for security-sensitive customers, helping them address the evolving risks as well as security threats.
Its solutions are designed to enable customers in maintaining controls, lessen and contain security threats in a proactive manner, and maintain operational uptime while reducing costs.
The company’s major business segments include One Identity and OneLogin, platform management for Microsoft, Information Management and erwin by Quest, and data protection and endpoint management software solutions.
Quest Software CEO Patrick Nichols said: “Quest has evolved to become a market leader in identity-centric cybersecurity, data intelligence, and IT operations management and I want to thank Francisco Partners for helping Quest realize this vision.”
“Our new partnership with Clearlake will accelerate Quest’s momentum as a leader and innovator as we increase our investment pace in our core product roadmaps, cloud/SaaS offerings, and global presence. We will continue to expand our customer base as computing environments and related management, modernization, and security challenges, become more complex.”
Nichols will continue to head the company post-acquisition and will be supported by its existing executive management team.
Quest Software was previously a part of Dell Software Group that was acquired by Francisco Partners and Elliott Management from Dell in late 2016. Post-acquisition, Dell Software Group was split into Quest and SonicWall.
Clearlake Capital co-founder and managing partner Behdad Eghbali said: “We have long admired Quest as a leading identity-centric cybersecurity, data intelligence, and IT operations management software platform and the Company’s software solutions that help secure enterprise IT environments.
“We are excited to partner with Patrick and Carolyn McCarthy, Quest’s CFO, to utilise Clearlake’s O.P.S. framework to help the Company strengthen its strategic growth plans including best practices to accelerate cloud/SaaS adoption and support its buy-and-build strategy.”
The deal, which is subject to regulatory approvals and closing conditions, is anticipated to close in Q1 2022.