Vista Equity Explores Sale Of Network Identity Provider Infoblox: Report

Vista Equity is weighing strategic options for network identity appliance provider Infoblox, including a potential sale, according to a PE Hub report.

The private equity firm has engaged in conversations with financial advisers about Santa Clara, Calif.-based Infoblox, and has already sent out teasers advertising the upcoming sale process, sources told PE Hub. The sale process is expected to target strategic buyers, PE Hub reported, but hasn’t yet kicked off.

Investment bank Qatalyst Partners is likely to advise Vista Equity as it weighs strategic options for Infoblox, sources told PE Hub. Infoblox declined to comment. Vista Equity also declined to comment, and Qatalyst Partners did not immediately responded to a request for comment from CRN.

[Related: CRN Exclusive: Former Ixia Channel Chief Lori Cornmesser Jumps To Network Identity Player Infoblox]

Sources told PE Hub that a potential deal could value Infoblox at around $2.5 billion. That’s $900 million more than Vista Equity paid to purchase the then-publicly traded company in September 2016.

Infoblox currently generates more than $400 million in revenue and nearly $150 million of earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), sources told PE Hub. The company was founded in 1999 and today employs 1,382 people, up 11 percent from 1,240 workers a year ago.

Under Vista Equity’s stewardship, Infoblox hired former Ixia channel chief Lori Cornmesser in May 2018 to help develop profiles of the company’s 1,000 global solution providers so Infoblox can bring different messages to partners based on whether they’re more security-focused or cloud-focused.

Six months later, Infoblox piloted a rebate program for select strategic partners to help grow the company’s security business from 20 percent of total revenue to between 30 percent and 35 percent of overall revenue. Infoblox hoped to have at least $20 million of partner-led security business in 2020, Cornmesser told CRN in November 2018.

Then in May 2019, Infoblox unveiled BloxOne Threat Defense, which leverages DNS (domain name system) to detect and block sophisticated cyberthreats. And in late 2019, Infoblox bought SnapRoute to help the company grow its hybrid cloud business.

Just three months before purchasing Infoblox, Vista Equity spent $600 million to buy cloud-based identity management provider Ping Identity. Vista Equity made a handsome return on that investment, with Ping Identity going public in September 2019 in a $187 million IPO that valued the company at $1.2 billion.

Outside security, Vista Equity’s most notable investments include its June 2014 purchase of IT service management vendor Autotask. Then in December 2017, Vista Equity bought data protection vendor Datto and immediately merged it into Autotask.

Just four months later, Vista Equity acquired a majority stake in fast-growing SaaS-based performance monitoring vendor LogicMonitor.