TA Associates invests £41 million in Sophos

US investors back UK firm’s increased assault on the American market

Sophos, a world leader developer of corporate anti-virus protection, has announced that TA Associates, one of the leading private equity and buyout firms in the United States, has completed a minority investment of £41 million (US$60 million) in the company. Two TA Associates senior executives have been appointed, one to the Sophos Plc board in the UK and the other to the board of Sophos Americas – which will also help drive the company’s continued activities in the US market.

“We decided to partner with TA because of its deep software investment experience, extensive network of contacts and expertise in helping companies grow their business in the vital US market,” said Dr. Peter Lammer, co-founder and joint CEO of Sophos. “TA’s investment should enable us to capitalise further on the worldwide growth in demand for anti-virus protection by helping us gain market share in the largest market in the world.”

Sophos has experienced rapid growth in revenue and profitability as reflected in a base of well over 10 million users and compound annual growth in revenue of 50 percent over the last three years. Sophos products are sold and supported in over 150 countries through a global network of subsidiaries and partners.

“Sophos’s high-quality products and superior customer service have given the company an unrivalled reputation in the security software corporate marketplace and led to its strong growth and profitability,” said Ajit Nedungadi, a Vice President at TA Associates, who will join Sophos’s UK Board. “TA is pleased to be able to participate in Sophos’s continued success moving forward.”

“Sophos is the kind of profitable, rapidly growing software company TA has always found attractive,” said Brian J. Conway, a Managing Director at TA Associates, who will join the Board of Sophos Americas. “TA’s history of investing in successful software companies and prior experience in the security software area led us to Europe, where Sophos is a leading anti-virus software company.”

Sophos is headquartered in the UK, with subsidiaries and branch offices in the US, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Singapore. Sophos’s business is focused exclusively on the corporate marketplace where its products protect all key points in a company’s IT infrastructure including gateways, email, servers and desktops.

All products combine award-winning technology with outstanding engineering to provide easily administered, integrated protection across multiple platforms. At the core of all Sophos products is a sophisticated virus detection engine, developed and supported by Sophos experts. The software’s platform-independent architecture ensures the same network functionality regardless of the operating system being used.

About TA Associates
Founded in 1968, TA Associates is one of the largest and most experienced investors in technology recapitalizations and management buyouts in the US. With offices in Boston, Menlo Park, and Pittsburgh, TA manages over $5 billion in capital and has invested in more than 330 companies. TA Associates provides growth equity capital and management buyout financing for technology, financial services and healthcare related businesses. More information about TA Associates can be found at www.ta.com.

About Sophos
Sophos is one of the world’s largest specialist developers of anti-virus software. Headquartered in the UK, its products are sold and supported through a global network of subsidiaries and partners in more than 150 countries. Sophos solutions are specifically designed to protect businesses and organisations from virus attack. The company’s products are widely deployed by large corporations, banks and governments.

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