LANDESK, a portfolio company of Thoma Bravo since September 2010, has signed an agreement to acquired AppSense, a provider of virtual desktop implementation services. The buy of AppSense is LANDESK’s seventh add-on acquisition in the past five years.
Virtual desktop implementation is software technology that separates the desktop computer environment and its software from the physical client device that is used to access it. In this way, all the components of the desktop are virtualized, which allows for a flexible and much more secure desktop computer environment.
The AppSense user virtualization technology allows IT professionals to secure and simplify control of physical, virtual and cloud-supported desktops. The company sells its products to companies that are active in the healthcare, banking, and finance sectors. AppSense counts eight of the top ten healthcare companies as customers, as well as 16 of the top 20 global banks. Annual revenues are approximately $125 million. AppSense was founded in 1999 and is based near Palo Alto in Sunnyvale, CA (www.appsense.com).
“Our goal with AppSense has been to provide the best user experience while enhancing the security and manageability of virtual and physical endpoints,” said Scott Arnold, president and CEO of AppSense. “Joining forces with LANDESK makes strategic sense. We are excited to provide our customers and partners with the option for a total endpoint management strategy from a single vendor.”
LANDesk Software is a provider of systems lifecycle management, endpoint security, and IT service management solutions for desktops, servers and mobile devices across the enterprise. LANDesk is headquartered in Salt Lake City (www.landesk.com). “This acquisition is a great strategic fit for LANDESK. It will reinforce LANDESK’s position as the leader in unified endpoint management and will strengthen our expertise in virtualization,” said Steve Daly, CEO of LANDESK.
“We are excited to see LANDESK build on its successful acquisition strategy,” said Seth Boro, managing partner at Thoma Bravo.
Thoma Bravo provides equity and strategic support to management teams building growing companies. The firm originated the concept of industry consolidation investing, which seeks to create value through the strategic use of acquisitions to accelerate business growth. Thoma Bravo is led by managing partners Seth Boro, Orlando Bravo, Scott Crabill, Lee Mitchell, Holden Spaht and Carl Thoma; as well as partners A.J. Rohde and Robert Sayle. Thoma Bravo currently manages approximately $9 billion of equity capital and has offices in Chicago and San Francisco (www.thomabravo.com).
© 2016 Private Equity Professional • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 3-15-16
