A partnership of private equity firms Silver Lake and Thoma Bravo has agreed to acquire Austin, Texas-based information technology management software company SolarWinds (NYSE: SWI) for an estimated $4.5 billion in cash, or $60.10 per share.SolarWinds said Wednesday Silver Lake and Thoma Bravo expect to close the acquisition in the first quarter of 2016, pending approval of SolarWinds’ stockholders and regulatory bodies.
The board of directors at SolarWinds has approved the sale and the transaction’s value is a 43.5 percent premium to SolarWinds’ closing price of $41.88 on Oct 8.
Kevin Thompson, SolarWinds president and CEO, said his company agreed to the deal with the goal to move forward on its strategy to expand its IT and DevOps platform offerings to customers worldwide.
SolarWinds provides IT management services to U.S. defense agencies such as the Army, Navy, Air Force,  Defense Information Systems Agency and civilian customers such as the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services.
J.P. Morgan Securities acted as financial adviser and DLA Piper was the legal adviser to SolarWinds on the transaction.
Silver Lake partnered with Michael Dell to purchase his namesake company for almost $25 billion in Fall 2013 and also invested $1 billion in data communications and telecommunications equipment provider Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) in August.
Thoma Bravo took government contracting market research firm Deltek private through a $1.1 billion cash acquisition in Fall 2012.
