Kape receives $1.5bn proposal to go private
Unikmind doubles down on privacy sector
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
The public parent company ofExpressVPN,Private Internet AccessandCyberGhostmay soon be a private entity - owned outright by its current majority shareholder, Unikmind.
The entity, owned by billionaire businessman Teddy Sagi, has proposed to purchase all the shares of Kape Technologies which it doesn’t have in hand and take the company private. This offer, pricing Kape at a premium of just over $1.5 billion, comes a year after theacquisition of industry heavyweight ExpressVPNfor $936 million.
Theoffer documentationis hefty and says the offer reflects a desire to “sustain [the company’s] expansion” and enable “long term capital investment conducted away from public markets”.
“We are committed to Kape’s further growth within our group of companies, enabling it to exploit operational synergies and to access capital for its continuous growth, especially as the convergence of technologies is gaining momentum”, said Sagi.
What does it mean for users?
So what could the move mean for the seven million subscribers using Kape’s variousVPNand security products?
Unikmind says that it “does not intend there to be any material changes to Kape’s business (save for potential acceleration of inorganic growth), broader strategic plans, or locations and places of business.”
The proof will be in the pudding. In particular, we’ll be looking for Kape’s VPN brands to continue their track record of publishingindependent audits.
Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter
Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!
Unikmind’s offer makes several references to “expansion” and a “buy-and-build strategy”, including noting that in the current market, “the availability of potential acquisitions may be increased”.
Between this offer and Kape’s recent placement news, where the company talks about securing additional financing to increase Kape’s ability to accelerate its growth through acquisitions, Unikmind is clearly signaling interest in growing its privacy and security holdings.
Echoes of McAfee
This potential deal comes 11 months after a parallel move in the consumer cybersecurity industry in whichMcAfee was taken privateby a group of investors for $14 billion.McAfeehad communicated the take-private deal as an opportunity for the investor group to “provide McAfee with both financial and operational resources to further enhance its consumer offering and capture the rapid growth in consumer demand for digital protection services.”
McAfee has since launched itsMcAfee+service, which combines its antivirus offering with a VPN, apassword manager,identity theftandcredit monitoring.
While the Kape take-private deal is much smaller, it’s clear that the burgeoning opportunity in the privacy and security space is proving enticing to investors.
Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled inwebsite buildersandweb hostingwhen DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.
Is it still worth using Proton VPN Free?
Mozambique VPN usage soars as internet restrictions continue
Black Friday is here: Sony XM5 over-ears drop to their lowest-seen price – act fast!
