N-able Parent, SolarWinds, Buys Database Management Co. Confio

Written by Jessica Davis 1
October 9, 2013

IT management vendor SolarWinds (SWI), fresh off its $120 million acquisition of N-able in May 2013, has made another big buy -- database performance management vendor Confio for $103 million in cash.

IT management vendor SolarWinds (SWI), fresh off its $120 million acquisition of N-able in May 2013, has made another big buy — database performance management vendor Confio for $103 million in cash.

The Confio acquisition is the final big deal in a two-year strategic initiative by SolarWinds to assemble a product portfolio that serves the specific needs of today’s systems administrators, SolarWinds said. Boulder, Colo.-based Confio offers Ignite, a database performance management software tool, and has products in use at 40 percent of Fortune 50 enterprises, the companies said.

Confio makes up the Big Data component of the IT management suite that SolarWinds has assembled. And while SolarWinds CEO Kevin Thompson told analysts that Confio makes up the last big piece of the puzzle, he left open the possibility of small, “tuck in” acquisitions to fill feature holes in the company’s IT management suite of tools.

The deal comes on the heels of the resignation of SolarWinds CFO Michael Berry. Berry resigned effective Oct. 1 to join another technology company, the company said when it announced his planned departure in August. SolarWinds also fell short of Wall Street’s earnings expectations for Q2, announced in July.

To help pay for the deal, SolarWinds established a $125 million new line of credit last week, and drew down $40 million. That was $40 million was combined with cash from other accounts for the total purchase price. The additional credit and cash on hand shores up SolarWinds cash position.

SolarWinds expects Confio to contribute $2 million to $3 million in revenues to SolarWinds’ revenue in Q4, the company told analysts during a conference call. The company’s quarterly bookings run rate, however, is closer to $5 million, and its quarterly expenses are $4.25 million to $5 million. Confio broke even in 2012 and grew its revenues by 50 percent in 2012 over 2011.

“Like SolarWinds, the Confio team, led by Matt Larson, has built a reputation for delivering easy to use, purpose-built products to support IT teams as they respond to the rapidly-evolving technology and data needs of their businesses,” said Thompson in a prepared statement.

Here are some quick facts about Confio:

Founded in 2004
More than 1,200 customers worldwide.
Flagship product, Confio Ignite improves software development and service delivery for systems based on Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, IBM DB2 and SAP Sybase databases, running on VMware virtual servers as well as physical servers.
Confio Ignite will continue to be available from www.confio.com.

The companies promised more details about branding and integration at a later date, maybe as early as its quarterly earnings conference call on Oct. 29.