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Automation and IT monitoring firm Progress on Monday introduced that it intends to accumulate file administration platform ShareFile for $875 million in money and credit score.
Progress CEO Yogesh Gupta mentioned that the deal, which is anticipated to shut by November 30, will bolster Progress’ portfolio with instruments to assist companies extra effectively share — and collaborate on — paperwork.
“Companies immediately want to boost their effectiveness in serving clients, whereas constantly streamlining their operations to drive effectivity, safety and compliance,” Gupta mentioned in a press release. “ShareFile clients will profit from Progress’ sturdy buyer focus, expansive product portfolio and experience in addition to an unparalleled monitor document of buyer success.”
Headquartered in Raleigh, ShareFile, was based in 2005 by Jesse Lipson, a self-taught programmer. Lipson — who on the time was working an internet design consulting enterprise — created ShareFile after a number of purchasers requested him to construct a web-based device they might use to arrange folders and alternate information with their clients.
With out outdoors funding or a free tier, ShareFile grew to three million customers by 2011. The service would go on to achieve 40 million customers after its acquisition by Citrix in 2011; Citrix continued to supply ShareFile as a standalone service in addition to an integration for a number of of its enterprise-oriented merchandise.
Lipson, who’d joined Citrix’s C-suite following the acquisition, left in 2017. And in 2023, Cloud Software program Group, a holding firm owned by Citrix and information integration supplier Tibco, purchased ShareFile for an undisclosed quantity.
Right now, ShareFile gives a variety of business-focused file sharing instruments and companies, together with a service that permits clients to create branded, password-protected portals for information (just like performance from Dropbox and Field). The corporate additionally supplies e-signing companies, regulation-compliant clouds for well being care and monetary paperwork and a service that lets clients serve information from their on-premises datacenters.
Cloud Software program Group CEO Thomas Krause sees ShareFile being fairly worthwhile for Progress, including as a lot as $240 million in annual recurring income to its steadiness sheet and 86,000 purchasers to its buyer base.
The marketplace for enterprise file sharing companies is certainly a profitable one, with analytics agency Grand View Analysis estimating that it was price $9.5 billion in 2023. ShareFile wasn’t among the many prime companies by way of utilization final yr — Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Field and Jupyter beat it out, per Statista — however given the sector’s large dimension, cornering even a tiny slice is sufficient to understand significant income.
“ShareFile has a protracted monitor document of success inside the safe content material collaboration and consumer interplay house and with this transaction, as a part of Progress, shall be higher positioned to proceed that document, lengthy into the longer term,” Krause mentioned in a press launch. “For ShareFile clients, we firmly consider they’ll profit from Progress’ deep buyer dedication, in depth product portfolio, experience and its expansive person group.”
Progress, based mostly in Bedford, Mass., mentioned it plans to droop its quarterly dividend after the ShareFile buy to redirect capital towards repaying debt. Doing so, Gupta added, will enable Progress to “enhance liquidity for future M&A and for share repurchases.”
ShareFile is Progress’ first acquisition this yr. The 43-year-old, publicly-traded firm posted a 2.3% year-over-year decline in income for its Q2 fiscal yr. (The corporate continues to dig out from the large information breach its switch device MOVEit brought on final yr.) However Progress mentioned it expects income and adjusted earnings per share for Q3 to be “inside or above” the excessive finish of its forecast.
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