KKR, a global investment firm, is acquiring Barracuda Networks from Thoma Bravo in a deal reportedly worth about $4 billion.

KKR didn’t disclose financial details of the acquisition. However, Reuters said sources who requested anonymity valued the deal at $4 billion including debt. The transaction should close by the end of the year, subject to customary conditions.

Thoma Bravo acquired Barracuda in 2018 in a $1.6 billion cash deal.

Barracuda focuses on serving SMEs and has more than 200,000 customers worldwide across a variety of industries. That includes education, government, financial services, health care, retail, consumer goods and manufacturing.

Barracuda will implement KKR’s employee ownership program, which makes all employees owners in their respective businesses alongside KKR.

Accelerating Growth with KKR’s Support

Barracuda Networks’ Hatem Naguib

Hatem Naguib is Barracuda‘s CEO.

“Barracuda will continue to pursue its current strategy,” he said. “We continue to deliver strong growth and plan to accelerate this growth further with KKR’s support. This means we will continue to provide the same high level of support and opportunities for our channel partners, and grow our businesses together now and in the future.”

KKR will provide Barracuda with resources and capital to further accelerate its growth and expansion in key areas, Naguib said. That includes managed detection and response (MDR), extended detection and response (XDR), and secure access service edge (SASE) technology.

“Investments in these key technology areas will give our channel partners the opportunity to establish an even greater competitive advantage as they build out their security practices and work to keep their customers secure,” he said.

Barracuda doesn’t anticipate any changes after the acquisition closes, Naguib said.

“Our team is executing against our stated strategy and continues to deliver innovative security products that are easy to buy, deploy and use,” he said

Near-term and Short-Term Opportunities

In the near term, Barracuda sees an opportunity to further accelerate its growth and the growth of its MSP partners in key technology areas, Naguib said.

“Long term, we also see opportunities to further build out our product suite through targeted M&A in cybersecurity and MSP software, which will create exciting new opportunities for our channel partners,” he said.

Bradley Brown is managing director at KKR.

“Barracuda has built an impressive portfolio of solutions that are helping SMEs around the world protect their data and address critical security challenges,” he said. ”We see a tremendous opportunity for long-term growth as these businesses continue to invest more in cybersecurity. And we look forward to helping Barracuda scale and deliver next-generation products that meet this growing need.”