Could Kaseya REALLY buy ConnectWise? Here’s the Latest!

Just this week CRN News announced that ConnectWise may indeed be in hot pursuit of an IPO. Yeah, ok that makes sense. We all know ConnectWise was trying to sell to another private equity firm, but things didn’t go through. It happens. That doesn’t necessarily mean that ConnectWise failed. It just meant that buyers and sellers couldn’t come to terms.

Author

Wes Spencer
September 21, 2023

Power Up by Empath Cyber

In today's rundown:

  • 🤖 Could Kaseya REALLY buy ConnectWise? Here’s the Latest from CRN!

  • 🔥 HUGE NEWS from Empath! A Co-Founder Emerges!

  • 🧠 RejectionCon… a BRAND NEW Can’t Miss Event!

Read time: 4 minutes 👇

Could Kaseya REALLY buy ConnectWise? Here’s the Latest from CRN! (And the truth of what’s likely)

Yeah, ok that makes sense. We all know ConnectWise was trying to sell to another private equity firm, but things didn’t go through. It happens.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that ConnectWise failed. It just meant that buyers and sellers couldn’t come to terms.

But after 5 years under Thoma Bravo, it’s clear that a changeup is in the works. And that’s natural. Thoma Bravo usually doesn’t want to hold a company for more than 5 years.

But an IPO is an interesting take. At this point, let’s not jump to immediate conclusions. It doesn’t mean an IPO is imminent. Or if it’ll even happen for ConnectWise. It could just be one option among many.

But we do know one thing: there’s got to be an end in sight for investors. And so here we are back again to this CRN article. An IPO is on the table. And do you remember what happened when Datto went IPO?

Things didn’t go as well as most hoped for Datto. And just two years after the Datto IPO, Kaseya bought up Datto for $6.2B at a 52% premium. Woah. Not cheap. But it spun up a flurry of chatter in the MSP-verse:

Is Kaseya the unstoppable empire? Will Kaseya ever recoup those costs?

On and on went many prognosticators. (You may even remember the infamous sad face by one notable and beloved Huntress employee.) But even more than that, one big question rose above them all:

At what point is an acquisition in the MSP space going to be at risk of anti-trust? And if ConnectWise goes to IPO, couldn’t Kaseya just raise enough money, once again, and acquire ConnectWise? And if that occurred, wouldn’t we have a single behemoth ruling over all?

Sure, it could happen. But that’s not likely. Maybe impossible, even. Anti-trust rules likely would make this difficult, if not impossible. I asked attorney Eric Tilds this question and here’s how he replied:

“[if this happened,] I don’t think FTC action is out of the question. This isn’t like Joe’s Pizza is buying Sam’s pizza in a small town and now there’s only one pizza place. These are multi-billion dollar companies and I think the deal size alone [would be] enough to raise the hackles of the FTC under the Clayton Act. The good news is that laws are in place to protect against unfair competition, and because of its size, this deal, if it ever happened, would have to be pre-approved by the Antitrust division of the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission.

Eric Tilds

That answer makes sense to me. I really don’t think there’s any likelihood of a super massive M&A move that ends with only one large player in the market. Phew! That’s good for everyone.

HUGE NEWS! A Brand New Empath Co-Founder Emerges!

Some of you know this… but I’ve been holding this in the bag for months. A brand new co-founder has emerged at Empath. If you don’t already know, the ONE and ONLY Alex Farling has joined us at Empath.

Truth be told, Alex has been a great friend from the beginning. But as we’ve decided to re-create Empath in

to a much broader direction, it just made sense that we bring in a few new folks into the company as we expand.

And that’s just what we did. While I can’t (yet!) announce the second Co-Founder joining, I can put the spotlight purely on Alex. Alex could have gone anywhere he wanted in the channel. Goodness knows about everyone asked him.

And he chose Empath. I’m over the moon. He brings an incredible amount of talent, insight, wisdom, and capability to our team.

Want to know more about what he’s doing? Stay tuned! More to come on that VERY shortly!

RejectionCon! A Brand New Can’t Miss Event

The news just keeps coming in, doesn’t it? Alongside the announcement of Empath’s new Co-Founder, we’re also doing something unprecendented.

Ever been so excited to give a talk at a conference like Blackhat, RSA, or anything else only to be rejected? I know that feeling.

How many AMAZING talks get rejected each year? Probably thousands that will never see the light of day.

Until now.

Announcing RejectionCon, December 12-14 2023! We’re crazy excited about this one. Every talk selected was rejected at some point. And chosen for resurrection by you. This is the community hard at work.

We're going to learn. And we're going to do good at the same time. Every registration dollar is going to the Rural Tech Fund, a 501(c)(3) focused on helping rural students recognize opportunities in technology careers and provide equitable access to technology for students with disabilities.

We promise to showcase some of the best never-before-heard content in the MSP-verse. From household name speakers to incredible first-timers, get ready for an action packed week full of collaboration, fun, discussion, and shenanigans.

Want in? You can be the first to know right here: https://www.rejectioncon.com Let’s go!

That's all for now!

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If you have any interesting projects or ideas, please reach out to us by [email protected] or hit me up on LinkedIn. As always, thanks for reading, and see you next time. 🫡

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