Blackstone Buys Majority Control Of Security Services Company Accuvant

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The Blackstone group today announced that a fund it manages on behalf of its private equity investors has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a majority stake in Denver based Accuvant Inc., a leader in providing information security solutions and services.

Accuvant management and current controlling shareholder, the Denver based private equity firm Sverica International LLC will continue to invest alongside Blackstone in the transaction. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed though some reports indicate Blackstone may have picked up an 80% equity interest from Sverica for US$150 million. Sverica bought the company originally in 2008.

New York based Blackstone’s investment will enable Accuvant to accelerate its pace of expansion, and enable the management team to deploy additional capital and resources for a broader roll-out of its product- and service-based solution offerings.

This investment is intended to leverage Blackstone’s extensive technology interests, and also significantly broadens its presence in the information-security sector. The rapid increase in the frequency and complexity of cyber-attacks has made information security a number one Board-level hot button at corporations all over the world.

Blackstone has committed significant time and resources to evaluating the industry landscape and key vendors in the market and this is its first major investment in the security segment.

Blackstone has also previously made smaller minority investments in other security firms, including Carbon Black / Bit9, iSIGHT Partners, Secure Mentem, WatchDox, and Cylance.

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Accuvant provides its enterprise customers with security software and hardware manufactured for it by its technology partners and, via its security services segments, offers implementation, consulting, 24×7 monitoring and managed services, and world-class post-intrusion detection and remediation services.

Blackstone were impressed with what they see as the strategic value that Accuvant brings to Blackstone, enabling full access to their world class security capabilities and talent to meet the ever increasing threat of information security breaches.

Dan Burns, the Accuvant co-founder and chief executive officer put it well for everybody saying when the deal was announced, “Security has transcended everyone and everything – from people to companies to nations, ” adding “This partnership will enable us to accelerate our pace of innovation and expansion, and allow us to deliver new services and solutions that meet the constantly evolving needs of the global and critically important market.”

The transaction is expected to close relatively quickly, in April of 2014, subject to any necessary regulatory approvals.

About Blackstone

Blackstone was founded by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson, who had been colleagues at Lehman Brothers. In 1985 Schwarzman and Peterson left Lehmans, going into partnership to form the Blackstone Company which initially focused on brokering large-scale mergers and acquisitions, before moving into property ownership and investment management.

Today Blackstone is one of the world’s leading private equity investment and advisory firms. Blackstone’s alternative asset management businesses include the management of corporate private equity funds, real estate funds, hedge fund solutions, credit-oriented funds and closed-end mutual funds.

Blackstone also provides various financial advisory services, including financial and strategic advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services. Through its different investment businesses, as of September 30th, 2013, Blackstone had assets under management of approximately US$248 billion.
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