Publicly traded McAfee, a provider of online protection services, has been acquired at an enterprise valuation of $14 billion by an investor group led by Advent International and Permira.
McAfee is a developer of digital-security tools for personal computers and server devices, and more recently, for mobile devices.
The company was founded by John McAfee in 1987 as McAfee Associates and was acquired by Intel in February 2011 for $7.7 billion and was renamed Intel Security. In 2017, Intel partnered with TPG Capital and Thoma Bravo to spin out Intel Security, renaming the new company McAffee. In 2020, McAfee was taken public on the NASDAQ under the symbol MCFE.
For the trailing twelve months through December 2021, McAfee had revenues of $1.9 billion and EBITDA of $535 million. Based on the $14 billion enterprise valuation this equates to a 26.2x EBITDA valuation multiple.
Investing alongside Advent International and Permira are Crosspoint Capital, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, GIC Private Limited, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
McAfee is headquartered in San Jose, California and is led by CEO Peter Leav. “We are very excited about this acquisition and working with the investor group to further strengthen our market-leading growth position as we continue to deliver world-class online protection services to millions of consumers globally,” said Mr. Leav. “This acquisition is made possible because of the outstanding contributions from our employees, as well as the partnership from TPG and Intel over the last four years. We are looking forward to our next chapter as a privately held, dedicated consumer business with the support and expertise of this group of investors.”
Post-closing, Bruce Chizen, a senior advisor at Permira and the former CEO of Adobe, will become the chairman of McAfee’s board of directors. “The need for personalized, innovative, and intuitive online protection services has never been greater, and McAfee is ideally positioned to meet this demand and continue to build its leading technology platform and loyal customer base,” said Mr. Chizen. “I am grateful to be joining the board and look forward to contributing to the company’s undoubtable next stage of success.”
Also joining McAfee’s board is Greg Clark, a managing partner at Crosspoint and a former CEO of Symantec. “We believe the opportunity is great for McAfee to expand its pole position in protecting citizens from cybercrime. We look forward to partnering with the McAfee management team and the Investor Group to deliver on what we believe is a truly unique opportunity in digital cyber safety,” said Mr. Clark.
“As consumers navigate the increasingly sophisticated and complex cybersecurity landscape, they turn to McAfee time and again,” said Bryan Taylor, a managing partner at Advent and the head of its technology investment team. “The McAfee brand is synonymous with trust and protection. We’re excited to help build on the company’s reputation for quality, excellence, and innovation to help it reach new heights.”
Advent International invests in companies active in business and financial services; healthcare; industrial; retail, consumer, and leisure; and technology, media and telecom. The firm has 15 offices in 12 countries and employs over 250 investment professionals across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Boston, Advent has $86 billion in assets under management and has completed more than 390 private equity transactions.
Permira is a European private equity firm with a total committed capital of approximately €58 billion. Sectors of interest include technology, consumer, healthcare, and services. The firm was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in London.
Debt financing for this transaction was provided by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Barclays Bank, Citigroup, HSBC Securities, Royal Bank of Canada, CPPIB Credit Investments, UBS, and PSP Investments.
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the financial advisors to McAfee on this transaction.
© 2022 Private Equity Professional | March 3, 2022