Vision Solutions Inc., a portfolio company of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, has completed its acquisition of recovery software provider Double-Take Software Inc. The deal was valued at $242 million in cash, or $10.55 per share (21% premium to closing price on last day of trading before Double-Take said it was considering alternatives).
PRESS RELEASE
Today Vision Solutions, Inc. announced it has finalized the acquisition of Double-Take Software, Inc. a leading provider of recovery solutions for the rapidly growing Windows, Linux and Cloud Computing markets. The acquisition significantly expands Vision Solution’s product offerings and distribution capabilities in the Windows and open systems markets, and strengthens its prominence throughout the information availability marketplace.
“This is an extremely important event for Vision, Double-Take and the clients we serve,” says Vision Solutions’ President and CEO Nicolaas Vlok. “Independently, each company has been a respected industry leader in its own information availability markets. Together, we are a global leader with the capability to serve companies – whatever the size, location or sector – with a competitive portfolio across major IT platforms. Among the many benefits for customers and partners is the ability to cross-pollinate ideas and technologies across our combined development and services teams.”
The acquisition of Double-Take Software, backed by private equity investor Thoma Bravo, marks Vision’s third strategic transaction in the information and high availability marketplace since November, 2006 when it merged with iTera, Inc. Vision later acquired Lakeview Technology in June, 2007.
“We’re excited to partner with Vision Solutions to create the clear industry leader for the IBM Power Systems, Windows and open systems information availability markets. Adding Double-Take’s class-leading range of solutions to Vision’s family of products will create the broadest and most innovative portfolio of information availability technology globally,” says Scott Crabill, managing partner at Thoma Bravo.
Nearly doubling in size, the expanding organization now includes one of the world’s largest development, services and customer support centers for information availability software. These resources, including one of the most established global partner networks, provide unprecedented coverage for customers of all sizes and geographies.
“We’re fortunate to be bringing together some of the best minds and intellectual property in the information availability industry,” says Alan Arnold, chief technology officer and executive vice president of Vision Solutions. “This enables us to consistently bring to market important new enhancements and technologies that address customer needs.”
Vision Solutions’ partners are welcoming the opportunity to expand their businesses with a competitive portfolio of top-tier availability brands for IBM i, AIX, Windows and Linux, and industry analysts and have been positive about the growing organization as well. “I am pleased that both Vision Solutions and Double-Take software are now one company. The benefits of a suite of information availability products covering major platforms from a single vendor will be significant for our business,” said Vision Partner. “Not only will we benefit from a convenience point-of-view, but our customers will reap the rewards of the technologies and best practices as Vision and Double-Take blend and expand.”
“Vision Solutions and Double-Take are expected to see synergies in their combined business, because high availability and data-replication products are increasingly seen as key to disaster recovery—and to planning for it,” said Jean S. Bozman, research vice president of IDC’s Enterprise Platforms Group. “Both types of software are essential ingredients of business continuity, as they allow re-start of applications and access to business data. Importantly, the combined company will also address a broader market than before—with products for scalable servers, as well as for the large deployments of volume x86 servers in today’s virtualized infrastructure.”
“Working with Vision Solutions and Double-Take Software as one company should prove to be beneficial for (customer name here),” says customer, a current client of both Vision and Double-Take. “This will allow us the opportunity to work with one vendor for innovative high availability and disaster recovery solutions.”
About Vision Solutions
Vision Solutions, Inc. is the world’s leading provider of information availability software and services for Windows, Linux, IBM Power Systems and Cloud Computing markets. Vision’s trusted Double-Take®, MIMIX® and iTERA™ high availability and disaster recovery brands support business continuity, satisfy compliance requirements and increase productivity. Affordable and easy-to-use, Vision products are backed by certified worldwide 24X7 customer support centers and a global partner network that includes IBM (NYSE:IBM), HP (NYSE:HPQ), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), VMware (NYSE:VMW) and Dell (NASDAQ:DELL). Privately held by Thoma Bravo, Vision Solutions is headquartered in Irvine, California, USA with offices worldwide. For more information, visit visionsolutions.com, search for VSIChannel on popular social networks or call 1 800.957.4511 (toll-free U.S. and Canada) or 801.799.0300.