Thoma Bravo To Acquire Ping Identity For $2.8B

Thoma Bravo is acquiring Ping Identity for $2.8 billion and taking the company private, the organizations announced Wednesday.

The private equity firm will pay $28.50 per share for the company in the all-cash purchase. The purchase price is a premium–about 63% higher than Ping’s closing price on Tuesday.

“Identity security and frictionless user experiences have become essential in the digital-first economy and Ping Identity is better positioned than ever to capitalize on the growing demand from modern enterprises for robust security solutions,” Ping Identity CEO Andre Durand said in a statement. “We are pleased to partner with Thoma Bravo, which has a strong track record of investing in high-growth cloud software security businesses and supporting companies with initiatives to turbocharge innovation and open new markets.”

Denver-based Ping Identity went public in 2019, raising $187 million through its IPO. At the time, the company had a valuation of $1.2 billion, according to Crunchbase, and its shares were priced at $15 apiece for the IPO.

Other acquisitions

Ping Identity is among a handful of other tech and tech-adjacent companies that went public in recent years and are now being acquired. One Medical, which went public in 2020, was acquired by Amazon last month. Also last month, Unity and IronSource announced they would merge.

The acquisition shows that private equity firms are interested in companies that went public when the IPO market was hot. Ping Identity is among three public company acquisitions Chicago-based Thoma Bravo has made so far this year, including Anaplan for $10.7 billion and SailPoint for $6.9 billion.

The Ping Identity acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Ping Identity will stay headquartered in Denver once it’s taken private, according to a statement from the companies.

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Illustration: Dom Guzman