Thoma Bravo acquires majority stake in USU product business

Möglin­gen (D)/ London (UK) — Thoma Bravo, a leading soft­ware invest­ment company with more than $160 billion in assets under manage­ment, has announ­ced the acqui­si­tion of a majo­rity stake in the USU product business.
— The combi­na­tion of Thoma Bravo’s exten­sive expe­ri­ence and invest­ment exper­tise in soft­ware with USU’s product port­fo­lio is expec­ted to acce­le­rate the company’s growth and deve­lo­p­ment of inno­va­tive solu­ti­ons for customers.
The exis­ting manage­ment team will conti­nue to lead the USU product business.
The tran­sac­tion is Thoma Bravo’s second invest­ment in Germany within a year and demons­tra­tes the company’s commit­ment to the German enter­prise soft­ware market.
— Benja­min Strehl, curr­ently Co-CEO of USU Soft­ware AG, will become CEO of the USU product business.
Bern­hard Ober­schmidt beco­mes a member of the Manage­ment Board.
The USU product busi­ness provi­des custo­mers world­wide with IT manage­ment solu­ti­ons for mana­ging diffe­rent IT envi­ron­ments and workflows.
As a stra­te­gic part­ner, the company enables its custo­mers to reduce costs, increase produc­ti­vity and manage growing tech­no­lo­gi­cal complexity.
Thoma Bravo will support the USU product busi­ness with its exten­sive network and indus­try expe­ri­ence to expand its product port­fo­lio and geogra­phi­cal presence.
The aim is to estab­lish the USU product busi­ness as a leading pan-Euro­­pean provi­der of IT manage­ment solutions.
“With its exper­tise in soft­ware, a culture of colla­bo­ra­tion and a passion to invest in trans­for­ma­tive tech­no­lo­gies, Thoma Bravo is the right part­ner to expand our offe­ring and support our growth ambi­ti­ons. Toge­ther we can create more value for our custo­mers by further deve­lo­ping the USU plat­form and our range of IT solu­ti­ons and expan­ding our part­ner program,” said Bern­hard Ober­schmidt, CEO of USU Soft­ware AG. “We are very exci­ted to invest in USU. We want to build on the company’s impres­sive deve­lo­p­ment, strong commit­ment to its custo­mers and product focus, and support the team as it conti­nues to scale,” said David Tse, Senior Vice Presi­dent at Thoma Bravo.
“We look forward to working with Bern­hard, Benja­min and the entire team to further grow the busi­ness through inno­va­tion and M&A.” “Our invest­ment in USU is the second tran­sac­tion in the DACH region within a year. We see Germany as a signi­fi­cant growth market with strong tech­no­lo­gies and are exci­ted to support this ecosys­tem with another invest­ment,” said Irina Hemmers (photo © Thoma Bravo), Part­ner at Thoma Bravo.
“Thoma Bravo’s invest­ment in the USU product busi­ness fits perfectly with our stra­tegy of part­ne­ring with market-leading soft­ware compa­nies to drive trans­for­ma­tive growth.”
Thoma Bravo will invest in the USU product busi­ness along­side USU Soft­ware AG to acce­le­rate the company’s growth.
USU foun­der Udo Strehl and the Strehl family will also remain invol­ved in the USU product busi­ness and help shape its further growth trajectory.
The busi­ness with leading products for IT service manage­ment, IT asset manage­ment, IT opera­ti­ons manage­ment and know­ledge manage­ment will be mana­ged as an inde­pen­dent unit in the future.
The tran­sac­tion is part of Thoma Bravo’s stra­te­gic expan­sion in the German market and under­lines its focus on inves­t­ing in the growth of inno­va­tive soft­ware compa­nies across Europe.
Subject to regu­la­tory appr­ovals, the tran­sac­tion is expec­ted to be comple­ted by the end of the year. Advi­sor USU: USU was advi­sed by Guggen­heim as sole invest­ment banker, Heuking as legal advi­sor and RSM Ebner Stolz with the finan­cial fact book.
Thoma Bravo is supported by Raymond James as finan­cial advi­sor and Kirk­land & Ellis as legal advi­sor. About Thoma Bravo Thoma Bravo is one of the largest soft­ware inves­tors in the world with more than $160 billion in assets under manage­ment as of June 30, 2024. With private equity, growth equity and credit stra­te­gies, the company invests in growth-orien­­ted, inno­va­tive compa­nies opera­ting in the soft­ware and tech­no­logy sectors. Thoma Bravo lever­a­ges its deep indus­try know­ledge and proven stra­te­gic and opera­tio­nal capa­bi­li­ties to part­ner with its port­fo­lio compa­nies to imple­ment best prac­ti­ces in opera­ti­ons and drive growth initiatives.
Over the past 20+ years, the firm has acqui­red or inves­ted in more than 490 compa­nies with an enter­prise value of over $265 billion, inclu­ding both control­ling and non-control­­ling invest­ments. The company has bran­ches in Chicago, London, Miami, New York and San Fran­cisco. thomabravo.com. About USU Soft­ware AG As a leading provi­der of soft­ware and services for IT and custo­mer service manage­ment, USU enables orga­niza­ti­ons to master the demands of today’s digi­tal world.
Global orga­niza­ti­ons use our solu­ti­ons to cut costs, become more agile and reduce risk — with smar­ter services, simp­ler work­flows and better collaboration.
With more than 45 years of expe­ri­ence and loca­ti­ons world­wide, the USU team brings custo­mers into the future.
The USU Digi­tal Consul­ting busi­ness unit remains a wholly owned subsi­diary of USU Soft­ware AG.
http://www.usu.com