SolarWinds Acquires N-able for $120 Million in Cash

SolarWinds, Inc., provider of IT management software, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held N-able Technologies, Inc., in cloud-based remote monitoring and management (RMM) and service automation software for MSPs.

SolarWinds is acquiring N-able for $120 million in cash. The company expects the acquisition to close before the end of the month.

"Upon completion of the acquisition, the addition of N-able to the SolarWinds family gives us the opportunity to respond to a growing need in the IT industry. As more and more small businesses begin exploring ways to deploy and efficiently manage IT and SaaS-based technologies to drive their businesses, MSPs are stepping up with cloud-based services designed to help ensure that IT environments are maintained and employees have the access and device support that they need to get their jobs done. We’re excited to expand into another highly complementary branch of IT management that we believe is ripe for our disruptive go-to-market model," said Kevin Thompson, SolarWinds’ president and CEO.

"N-able is very excited about this opportunity to join forces with SolarWinds to continue our mission to serve the MSP market and drive this next phase of growth," said Gavin Garbutt, CEO and co-founder, N-able. "We feel that this merger is a reflection of our industry-leading position and growth, the quality of our products and, most importantly, the performance of the N-able team worldwide."

Overview:

• SolarWinds believes that an opportunity exists to more effectively serve small businesses’ evolving IT needs by empowering the MSPs many of them have come to rely on. Many MSPs offer cloud-based management services designed to help ensure that IT environments are efficiently and properly maintained in line with ‘light IT’ or ‘no IT’ initiatives.
• It gives SolarWinds a more effective and accelerated means of meeting the needs of the developing IT service market – comprised of MSPs and VARs, and the hundreds of thousands of SMBs they serve.
• The acquisition allows SolarWinds to leverage the opportunity associated with growing adoption of the cloud and SaaS-based services among SMBs; enhancing its RMM offerings and adding MSP service automation to the range of management challenges that SolarWinds works to address for the IT industry.
• The functionality provided by the N-able acquisition serves a need for MSPs tasked with providing supplemental or complete IT services, via the cloud, to SMBs, such as user support and device and application monitoring and troubleshooting. N-able has a track record of helping MSPs standardize and automate the setup and delivery of these IT services in order to achieve scalability.
• SolarWinds plans to share additional details around future product direction, branding, positioning and pricing following the completion of the acquisition.

"Like SolarWinds, N-able has built a reputation for delivering products that are tailor-made to support the unique needs of their users and has invested in developing strong relationships with these MSPs," continued Thompson. "We look forward to welcoming the N-able team into the SolarWinds family and working together to expand the SolarWinds model into this new IT management market. We believe that the combined strength of these two companies will deliver significant benefit to the larger IT community, but in particular those small businesses who need support in managing, maintaining and securing their critical IT systems."