The private equity realm has been pretty active so far in 2024, serving as a powerful “alternative” source of liquidity for technology startups and scale-ups in search of an exit. In August, TechCrunch reported that EQT had picked up a majority stake in cybersecurity firm Acronis at a valuation of around $4 billion, following in the footsteps of another exit, in which EQT snapped up enterprise middleware company WSO2 for $600 million.
However, private equity has also been busy in the public markets, with some big deals going down to transform underperforming companies with strong growth prospects. According to PitchBook, there were 136 take-private deals led by private equity firms in 2023, up 15% on the previous year. New data provided to TechCrunch by PitchBook indicates that by the midway point of 2024, there had been 97 such deals, meaning we’re roughly on course to match last year’s figure (give or take) if the current trajectory holds.
Of the take-private deals that have closed so far in 2024, 46 belong to the technology sector. TechCrunch has filtered through these transactions to identify deals specifically focused on product-centric companies (rather than IT consultancies or services firms), and pulled out all the acquisitions valued at $1 billion or more.
We’ve included transactions that have either already closed in 2024 or are set to close in 2024; this includes deals first announced last year.
Norwegian media group Schibsted spun out classifieds platform Adevinta as a stand-alone business in 2019. With existing online marketplaces in France, Spain, Brazil, and the U.K., Adevinta went on to acquire eBay’s classifieds business for $9.2 billion in 2020.
During the original spinout in 2019, Schibsted listed Adevinta on the Oslo Stock Exchange at a $6 billion valuation. In late 2023, news emerged that private equity firms Permira and Blackstone were leading a consortium to take Adevinta private in a deal worth 141 billion Norwegian crowns ($13 billion). That deal finally closed in May.
Six years after filing to go public, enterprise software company Smartsheet is now in the midst of being taken private, after Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone partnered to offer shareholders a chunky $8.4 billion in cash.
The Bellevue, Washington-based company had hit a mid-pandemic market value of more than $10 billion, well over its opening day IPO valuation of $1.5 billion. After a rough couple of years where it dropped to below $4 billion, the company has been on the ascendency for much of 2024, rising above the $7 billion mark before the two private equity firms swooped in with their bid — representing a 41% premium over its 90-day average price.
The acquisition is expected to conclude by the end of Smartsheet’s fiscal year-end, which is January 31, 2025. However, the agreement includes a 45-day “go shop” period that expires in early November, so technically Smartsheet is able to pursue alternative suitors for now, and terminate the existing agreement with Vista and Blackstone if it finds a better deal.
U.K.-based private equity firm Permira announced plans to acquire website builder Squarespace in May, in an all-cash deal valued at $6.9 billion.
Squarespace filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, shortly after raising $300 million at a $10 billion valuation. The company went on to reach a market cap high of $8 billion in mid-2021, but its stock went into free fall, dropping to a low of $2 billion in 2022. The company was already on the rebound this year, with its market cap soaring past $5 billion off the back of strong earnings, sparking Permira into action.
The deal eventually closed in mid-October at an increased valuation of $7.2 billion, after an advisory firm recommended that Squarespace shareholders reject the initial offer.
Canadian fintech Nuvei, which provides companies with a range of services spanning payments processing, risk management, currency conversion, and more, entered into an agreement in April to be taken private by Advent International in a deal worth $6.3 billion.
The Ryan Reynolds-backed company originally filed to go public in 2020 on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), followed by the Nasdaq in the U.S. a year later. The company hit a peak valuation of more than $24 billion in 2021 before hitting a low of $2.6 billion in October, 2023.
The deal is expected to close in late 2024 or early 2025 at the latest.
K-12 education software provider PowerSchool is in the middle of being taken private by Bain Capital, in a transaction that values the Folsom, California-based company at $5.6 billion.
PowerSchool was originally acquired by Apple in 2001 for $62 million in an all-stock deal, with Apple selling PowerSchool to Pearson five years later. Pearson then sold it on to Vista Equity Partners in 2015, with Onex Partners joining as investor three years later.
PowerSchool went public in 2021, with the NYSE listing giving the company an initial valuation of around $3.5 billion. It later surged to $5.5 billion in late 2021, before falling to $1.8 billion within a year and then hovering at around the $3.5 billion mark for the past couple of years.
The take-private transaction is expected to conclude in the second half of 2024.
U.K. cybersecurity giant Darktrace is set to go private in a $5.3 billion deal spearheaded by an entity called Luke Bidco Ltd., formed by private equity giant Thoma Bravo.
Founded in 2013, Darktrace raised some $230 million in VC funding and reached a private valuation of $1.65 billion, before going public on the London Stock Exchange in 2021 with an opening-day valuation of $2.4 billion. The full valuation based on Thoma Bravo’s offer amounts to $5.4 billion on a fully diluted basis, with the corresponding enterprise value sitting at $4.99 billion.
The deal is expected to close by the end of 2024.
Educational technology company Instructure first went public in 2015, but it was taken private by Thoma Bravo in a $2 billion transaction four years later.
In 2021, the private equity giant spun Instructure out once more as a public company on the NYSE, but its valuation generally hovered around the $3.5 billion mark. But KKR swooped in with a $4.8 billion bid in July, with plans to take the company private once more.
The deal is expected to close in late 2024.
Data analytics software provider Alteryx was taken private in a $4.4 billion deal.
Alteryx went public on the NYSE in 2017, with its shares soaring past the $12 billion mark in the intervening years. However, its market cap had been in free fall since 2021, hitting a low of $2 billion before Clearlake Capital Group and Insight Partners came in with their offer last December.
The take-private transaction closed in March this year.
First announced in October 2023, Vista Equity Partners bid $4 billion to take customer engagement software provider EngageSmart private in a deal valued at $4 billion. EngageSmart went public on the NYSE in 2021, with its market cap hovering around the $2 billion to $3 billion mark until Vista Equity Partners tabled its $4 billion offer.
The transaction closed in January, with the EngageSmart brand now in the process of being discontinued and replaced by two separate companies: InvoiceCloud and SimplePractice.
Pet-sitting marketplace Rover went public on the Nasdaq via a SPAC in 2021. At the tail end of 2023, Blackstone announced its intentions to acquire the company for $2.3 billion.
That all-cash transaction finally closed in February, with Rover now a private company once more.
Thoma Bravo first announced its intentions to acquire Everbridge, a critical event management software company, for $1.5 billion in early February. Following further negotiations, Thoma Bravo bumped that price up to $1.8 billion.
Founded in 2002, Everbridge went public on the Nasdaq in 2016, with its shares peaking at $6.4 billion in 2021 before falling below the $1 billion mark ahead of Thoma Bravo entering the the mix.
The transaction closed in July.
Way back in July 2023, a consortium of buyers led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management announced it was acquiring gamified e-learning platform Kahoot in a deal worth $1.7 billion.
The announcement came a little over two years after Kahoot went public on the Oslo Stock Exchange, with the sale price representing a 53.1% premium on the last trading day before its investors’ specific shareholdings were publicly disclosed in May.
The transaction finally closed in January this year, with Kahoot delisting from the Oslo Børs stock exchange.
Zuora, a platform companies use to manage their subscriptions and billings, is being taken private in a $1.7 billion deal by private equity firms GIC and Silver Lake.
The announcement came a little over four years after Zuora went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), going on to hit a peak mid-pandemic valuation of nearly $3 billion.
The all-cash transaction is expected to close in Q1 2025, subject to the usual shareholder and regulatory conditions.
Model N, a platform that helps companies automate decisions related to pricing, incentives and compliance, went private in a $1.25 billion deal spearheaded by Vista Equity Partners.
Founded in 1999, Model N went public on the NYSE in 2013, though its valuation rarely ventured further north than $1.5 billion — a figure that fell to below $1 billion in the six months leading to Vista Equity Partners stepping into the fray.
The transaction concluded in June 2024, with Model N now a private company.
