Progress Is Acquiring Ipswitch For $225 Million In Cash

By Noah Long • Mar 29, 2019

Ipswitch’s WhatsUp Gold / Photo Credit: Ipswitch

Application development and digital experience company Progress has announced a definitive agreement for acquiring secure data file transfer and network management software company Ipswitch for $225 million in cash. This transaction will be funded with existing cash on hand and funds secured under a new credit facility. And the transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share and cash flow.

This deal is expected to bolster Progress’ core offerings to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and enterprises. And it will also enable these businesses to respond faster to business demands and help increase productivity.

“Ipswitch has an excellent reputation, top quality products, a thriving customer base and partner ecosystem and highly skilled and engaged employees,” said Progress CEO Yogesh Gupta. “We are excited by the opportunity this acquisition affords both companies and our respective customers, partners and employees. Progress and Ipswitch have a common legacy of enabling businesses to solve mission-critical challenges with efficient, easy-to-use solutions.”

Ipswitch originally launched in 1991 and the company currently serves 24,000 customers in 170 countries. IT professionals and CTOs at SMBs and enterprises depend on Ipswitch for their daily needs.

In terms of revenue, Ipswitch is hitting $75 million — of which 75% is recurring. This revenue comes from a number of blue-chip customers across a range of verticals including finance/banking, healthcare, insurance, government, and biotech.

Ipswitch’s develops a number of top products including MOVEit, WhatsUp Gold, and WS_FTP. These products enable SMBs and enterprises to provide data sharing and high-performance infrastructure availability. MOVEit is the compnay’s flagship secure data transfer product — which allows enterprise customers to securely transfer business information between users, locations, and partners in compliance with data security regulations like HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR. WhatsUp Gold enables SMBs and enterprises to continuously monitor and manage IT infrastructure and applications. And WS_FTP offers FTP-based secure file transfer server and client capabilities.

“We are extremely proud of the incredible achievements and momentum the Ipswitch team has created to date,” added Ipswitch CEO Michael Grossi. “We expect this new chapter with Progress to provide even greater opportunities for our combined customers, partners, and employees.”