Tag Archive for: Thoma

Thoma Bravo agrees to acquire digital forensics firm Magnet Forensics for over $1B • TechCrunch

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Thoma Bravo, the private equity and growth capital firm, today announced that it would spend $1.8 billion CAD (~$1.34 billion) to acquire Magnet Forensics, a Waterloo-based company making software used by defense forces and businesses to investigate cybersecurity threats.

Magnet Forensics will be purchased by a newly created corporation controlled by Thoma Bravo, Morpheus Purchaser Inc., which will pay Magnet Forensics shareholders a 15% premium over Thursday’s closing price on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Post-buy, Morpheus will be merged with mobile device forensics outfit Grayshift, which Thoma Bravo acquired majority control of last July.

The transaction is expected to close by Q2 2023, subject to shareholder and other customary approvals.

“We look forward to bringing together the complementary capabilities of Magnet and Grayshift to create a leader in the digital forensics and cyber security space,” Thoma Bravo partner Hudson Smith said in a press release. “Digital evidence is an increasingly critical aspect of investigations and the combined company will be well-positioned to further market expansion, accelerate innovation and provide even greater solutions to its customers.”

Launched in 2010, Magnet Forensics develops digital investigation software that acquires, analyzes, reports on and manages evidence from computers, mobile devices, Internet of Things devices and cloud services. The company was founded by Jad Saliba, a Waterloo regional police constable who worked in the police force’s high-tech crimes unit. After incubating Magnet Forensics’ software at the unit, Saliba decided to strike out on his own and sell the tech for a licensing fee, partnering with Jim Balsillie and Adam Belsher, then BlackBerry executives.

Before going public, Magnet Forensics attracted an investment from In-Q-Tel, the nonprofit venture arm of the U.S. intelligence community. The company claims that its software is used by more than 4,000 public and private sector customers — e.g. police forces, intelligence agencies, tax officials, border guards and militaries — in over 100 countries, helping investigators protect assets and guard national security.

Business was booming…

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SD Times news digest: The Hacker Gamers by Veracode, GrammaTech Shift Left Academy, and Talend to be acquired by Thoma Bravo

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Veracode has introduced a secure coding competition, The Hacker Games, which aims to challenge university students to hack and patch real-life apps online to win individual prizes, plus $15,000 in charitable donations for the top universities.

“Training around secure coding is almost absent at the university level. We’ve launched The Veracode Hacker Games to help universities make secure coding a core part of their computer science and cybersecurity curriculum, while giving students an edge when it comes to putting their skills to the test in a real-world environment,” said Chris Wysopal, the founder and CTO of Veracode.

Writing secure code is especially important now as a recent study by the University of Maryland showed that hackers attack every 39 seconds and the average cost of a data breach for a company is nearly $4 million, Veracode explained.

GrammaTech Shift Left Academy
GrammaTech’s Shift Left Academy was created to provide actionable advice on integrating security earlier into development and DevOps pipelines.

The site features interviews with industry experts, technical “how to” advice and other actionable information for the DevOps and security community.

“Developers are being asked to integrate security best practices earlier in the development cycle, or what is commonly known as ‘Shift Left’, however there is resistance to implement these large-scale initiatives since they can be disruptive to their workflows and release schedules,” said Andrew Meyer, the CMO of GrammaTech. “Shift Left Academy provides practical advice and content, versus theoretical resources. Our goal is to give the DevSecOps community tools they can use to immediately improve outcomes.”

Talend to be acquired by Thoma Bravo
The data integration and data integrity provider Talend is set to be acquired by Thoma Bravo.

Talend would become a private company and continue investing in its cloud transition as well as products and solutions that serve the evolving data needs of its customers.

“Data has become critical to every facet of the world, and Talend’s data fabric empowers organizations to operationalize their data,” said Chip Virnig, a partner at…

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