Personal-equity agency Hellman & Friedman LLC has taken a 7.5% stake in
Splunk Inc.
SPLK 6.01%
value about $1.4 billion, in line with individuals aware of the matter, an enormous guess on the software program firm and its incoming chief govt.
Hellman & Friedman began shopping for the stake in mid-late December after Splunk shares plunged when the corporate’s former CEO resigned following a number of quarters of disappointing outcomes. The stake would make Hellman & Friedman the most important lively shareholder of Splunk, which has a market worth of practically $20 billion.
San Francisco-based Splunk, which makes software program utilized by firms’ information-technology and safety operations, earlier this week stated it employed
Gary Steele
as its new CEO. He was the founding CEO of Proofpoint Inc., an information-security firm that was acquired by private-equity agency Thoma Bravo final yr.
Splunk additionally reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter outcomes this week. Income rose 21% from a yr in the past to $901.1 million, beating analysts’ consensus estimate of $774.6 million. Annual recurring income, a carefully watched metric for firms with subscription income, rose 32% to $3.12 billion.
Hellman & Friedman is supportive of Mr. Steele and plans to work with the corporate.
Splunk stated in a press release it’s conscious of the private-equity agency’s funding and happy its staff “shares our confidence within the power of our enterprise and important alternative forward.”
Hellman & Friedman is the newest know-how specialist drawn to Splunk and its prospects for progress as firms develop into extra digital and face rising cybersecurity threats. Final month, The Wall Road Journal reported that data-networking big
Cisco Techniques Inc.
had made a takeover supply value greater than $20 billion for Splunk. The bid had stalled by then and the hiring of a brand new CEO suggests Splunk plans to go it alone at the very least for now.
Fellow private-equity agency Silver Lake in June made a $1 billion funding within the firm to assist help the transformation of its enterprise from conventional software program licensing to a cloud-based subscription mannequin. Silver Lake took a seat on Splunk’s board.
With workplaces in San Francisco, New York and London, Hellman & Friedman just lately had greater than $95 billion in belongings below administration. The agency makes a restricted variety of large-scale investments in rising firms in sectors together with software program and know-how, monetary providers, healthcare, retail and client. Minority investments like this one are much less typical for the agency and its private-equity rivals, who extra usually purchase management of firms, both by themselves or in teams.
Hellman & Friedman was a part of a gaggle that signed a roughly $30 billion deal for medical-supply firm Medline Industries Inc. in June after which agreed with a accomplice to purchase healthcare-records firm Athenahealth Inc. for round $17 billion together with debt in November.
Write to Cara Lombardo at cara.lombardo@wsj.com and Dana Cimilluca at dana.cimilluca@wsj.com
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