Thoma Bravo and Ontario Teachers' to buy Riverbed Technology for $3.6 bn

Private equity firm Thoma Bravo and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan yesterday struck a deal to buy network equipment maker Riverbed Technology Inc for $3.6 billion.

The sale comes just a year after Riverbed's biggest shareholder Elliott Management Corp started pressurizing the management to sell the company due to a slowdown in its core business of main wide-area network (WAN) and its failure to integrate its 2012 acquisition of software maker Opnet.

Under the terms of the deal that has been approved by the board of Riverbed, Thoma Bravo and Ontario Teachers' will pay $21 per share in cash, a premium of 12 per cent to Riverbed's closing price on Friday.

Riverbed, based in San Francisco said, ''The agreement was unanimously approved by Riverbed's Board of Directors following a comprehensive review of strategic and financial alternatives that the Company announced in October, 2014.''

''This investment is the largest in Thoma Bravo's history, and it marks a continued emphasis on and confidence in companies that deliver mission-critical technologies for an expanding, global customer base,'' said Seth Boro, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo.

''Riverbed is at the forefront, providing world-class solutions in application performance infrastructure to more than 25,000 customers worldwide, including 97 per cent of the Fortune 100 and Forbes Global 100,'' he added.

''We are extremely pleased with this transaction, which we believe will be a winning proposition for all of our stakeholders,'' said Jerry Kennelly, chairman and CEO of Riverbed.

''Having undertaken a thorough strategic review, during which we assessed a wide variety of options to maximize value, the Board unanimously concluded that partnering with Thoma Bravo was the best choice for Riverbed, as this transaction will provide our stockholders with significant and immediate cash value,'' he added.

With annual revenues of more than $1 billion, Riverbed is a leader in application performance infrastructure, delivering the most complete platform for Location-Independent Computing.

Its more than 25,000 customers include 97 per cent of both the Fortune 100 and the Forbes Global 100.

Its clients include Accenture, AT&T, BT, Dimension Data, EMC, HP, IBM, Microsoft, NetApp, NTT, Orange Business Services, SingTel, Telstra and Verizon.