DEVOPSdigest

Progress announced the completion of the acquisition of Ipswitch, Inc., a provider of secure data file transfer and network management software. Progress announced the proposed acquisition on March 28.

As part of Progress, Ipswitch will bolster Progress’ core offerings for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and enterprises, enabling those businesses to respond faster to business-critical demands and to improve productivity. Ipswitch’s products include:

- MOVEit, for secure data transfer, which allows enterprise customers to securely transfer critical business information between users, locations and partners in compliance with data security regulations such as HIPAA, PCI DSS and the EU’s GDPR.

- WhatsUp Gold for network monitoring, which enables small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises to continuously monitor and manage their IT infrastructure and applications, assuring high levels of performance and availability.

- WS_FTP delivers FTP-based secure file transfer server and client capabilities to meet the needs of small and mid-sized businesses.

Yogesh Gupta, CEO, Progress, said: “Ipswitch’s talented team and market-leading technology, in combination with the scale and resources available within Progress, will provide incredible benefits to customers and partners. Furthermore, because the acquisition of Ipswitch meets all of our disciplined acquisition criteria, it advances an important part of our strategy and will provide excellent returns to our shareholders.”

Progress purchased Ipswitch for $225 million in cash. Progress funded the transaction with existing cash on hand and funds secured under a new credit facility. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to both non-GAAP earnings per share and cash flow.

In connection with the acquisition, Progress issued equity awards with an aggregate value of approximately $3,000,000 to approximately ninety Ipswitch employees who joined Progress as part of the acquisition. These awards consist of a combination of options to purchase Progress common stock and restricted stock units. The awards were made pursuant to Progress’ 2004 Inducement Stock Plan.