Buy-and-Build Investment in Cybersecurity, Data Intelligence, and IT Operations Software Leader
SANTA MONICA, CA and ALISO VIEJO, CA – February 2, 2022 – Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. (together with its affiliates “Clearlake”) today announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Quest Software (“Quest” or the “Company”), a global cybersecurity, data intelligence, and IT operations management software provider, from Francisco Partners. Quest CEO Patrick Nichols will continue to lead the Company supported by the existing executive management team. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1987, Quest Software has built a reputation over three decades as a critical software solution provider for security-sensitive customers and an innovator in addressing rapidly evolving risks and security threats. Quest enables today’s edgeless IT ecosystem, across people, applications, and data to endpoints, allowing customers to maintain controls, mitigate and contain security threats proactively, and achieve operational up-time while decreasing costs.
“As the world relies more and more on digital applications, organizations are continuing to look to Quest to manage strategic enterprise IT functions and enable increased cybersecurity and greater productivity,” said Mr. Nichols. “With Clearlake as our partner, Quest will continue to innovate and evolve our solutions to address the various challenges businesses are facing today, ranging from application migration and cloud deployment to data protection and security resiliency.”
“Quest is an exciting addition to Clearlake’s cybersecurity and infrastructure software portfolio, and we are thrilled to begin our partnership with Patrick and the Company’s talented management team,” said Behdad Eghbali, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, and Prashant Mehrotra, Partner at Clearlake. “We believe that Quest is well positioned to continue leading the identity-centric cybersecurity, data intelligence, and IT operations markets, both organically and through an accelerated buy-and-build strategy, utilizing Clearlake’s software industry experience and O.P.S.® value creation framework.”
Goldman Sachs acted as lead financial advisor to Quest. J.P. Morgan also acted as financial advisor and Paul Hastings LLP acted as legal advisor to Quest. SVB Securities and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC along with BofA Securities, Barclays, Evercore, and William Blair acted as financial advisors to Clearlake. Sidley Austin LLP acted as legal advisor to Clearlake.