Francisco Partners has completed its all-cash acquisition of Blancco Technology Group. The acquisition saw Blancco shares priced at 223 pence per share, costing Francisco Partners £175 million. The move sees Blancco remove its listing from the London stock market.
What is not clear, is how much money will be invested into helping Blancco move forward. In the announcement, Francisco Partners commented that it would “support Blancco in addressing the heightened global demand for greater environmental stewardship and e-waste reduction.”
Blancco currently has over 2,500 customers across 70 countries. Earlier this year, it announced that it had increased investment in partner resources by 200%. It also set itself a goal to double its enterprise business by 2025.
Matt Jones, Chief Executive Officer of Blancco, said, “Since its founding 26 years ago, Blancco has created and delivered innovative solutions, with a focus on building a world class data eraser and diagnostic software platform.
“We are pleased to partner with Francisco Partners, who are committed to continuing to build upon the company’s strong foundation and achieve its full potential. I want to thank each employee for their dedication to Blancco and contributing to our continued success.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
Blancco sits in a good position. Organisations are increasingly realising that just wiping drives or paying someone to take them away and hoping they wipe them is not enough. Increased attention from regulators over compliance has changed that approach. Organisations are much more aware of the need for auditable and secure destruction of data storage devices.
Completion of the acquisition is good news for Blancco. Although there is no figure given for inward investment into product plans by Francisco Partners, it has a solid track record of investing in its acquisitions. It will have noted Blancco’s investment in partner resources and it goals for 2025. As such, there is no question it will fund that, we just don’t know by how much.
It is not just partners that will welcome this news. Existing customers will be happy that they are going to be able to get the service they are used to. However, some will be asking if this will mean any new products and solutions. On that point, we will have to wait and see.
