Thoma Bravo

Veronis Systems is scheduled to present at Citi's 2026 Global TMT Conference.

Media reports on Tuesday indicated that Thoma Bravo's Proof Point is in talks to buy Veronis.

And the NFL season begins tonight when the Seahawks take on the New England Patriots.

Don't look at your calendar.

And, you know, when cracks started to appear with Tricolor and, uh, you know, other, uh...

Medallia especially, which was a big private, uh, equity, uh, deal, uh, go, uh, uh, Thoma Bravo, Thoma, Thoma Bravo, whatever they are, um, that came a cropper and they lost 5 billion of equity, and now it's owned by its private credit lenders, KKR, Apollo, a- and Blackstone.

Um, you know, a lot of, uh, retail investors have been pushed into these funds because of, as you said, the, the higher yields that have been promised.

And, you know, when the cracks started to appear, like, late last year, earlier this year, they tried to redeem more than they were allowed to.

Let us start with the acquisition news, because this is a big one.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Proofpoint, the American cybersecurity company owned by Thoma Bravo, is in advanced talks to buy the Israeli cyber firm, Varonis.

That is a fascinating move.

Varonis was trading at a valuation of around $5 billion right before this news broke.

And then later they pop back up with a different name.

Thomas Bravo is the world's largest software-focused investment firm.

with over $181 billion in assets under management as of September 30th, 2025.

No big deal, just the world's largest software-focused investment firm getting folded over into an Israeli tech cyber intelligence firm, which is what it is.

And then later they pop back up with a different name.

Thomas Bravo is the world's largest software-focused investment firm.

with over $181 billion in assets under management as of September 30th, 2025.

No big deal, just the world's largest software-focused investment firm getting folded over into an Israeli tech cyber intelligence firm, which is what it is.

It was a carve-out, you know? It was never part of the core strategy, blah, blah, blah.

Um, and then, um, uh, what p- people then start seeing is, remember, software multiples had come way down during the financial crisis, and then as they started to come back, everybody started looking at Thoma Bravo and Vista in 2014 and '15 and '16 and saying, "Whoa, look at their returns.

It's unbelievable.

Software is an amazing, you know, thing for private equity.

Yes.

You know, Thoma Bravo bought NextGen and they're just-

Mm-hmm

... you know, milking it.

pie.To understand why the Workday numbers are so seismic, you have to look at the recent benchmark.

In twenty twenty-six, we've seen significant plays like Thoma Bravo's twelve point three billion dollar acquisition of Dayforce and HG's six point four billion dollar deal for OneStream.

But a Silver Lake move for Workday would dwarf those.

It would move us from a landscape of mid-sized software consolidations to a heavyweight era of mega buyouts.

There have been significant disposals, so selling...

They sold Jefferson and Digital Aviation Solutions to private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $10 billion.

And they acquired their main supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, which used to be part of Boeing- And it's re-brought them back into the fold for quality assurance processes.

They've also diver- they've also divested their autonomous, uh, flying aircraft department, which was made up of Wisk, SkyGrid, and InSitu to Archer Aviation, as we discussed.

And, um, we tried it successfully, and, uh, so we, we won that, won that case.

And, um, I had had a reach-out before the case was over from a private equity shop, Thoma Bravo, about, you know, potentially joining them in a new role that they wanted to create as they were, as they were growing.

And, um, Thoma Bravo had been doing really well, and they continue to do really well.

Um, but they wanted somebody with my background to come on and, and, uh, come into this new position.

But, um, I was not going to go before this trial was over.

And then you fo- co-founded Luminate Capital Partners, a software private equity firm in San Francisco.

When, when does that kinda happen on your timeline?

So that was kind of ta- after Thoma Bravo, I went and, um, joined somebody that I had known for years and years.