What did not succeed in 2022 seems to have succeeded this time: the acquisition of Darktrace by American investor Thoma Bravo. He has five billion dollars left for this British cybersecurity company listed on the London stock exchange. The acquisition (and delisting) must still be approved by the competition authorities. In 2022, Darktrace itself purchased industry colleague Cybersprint from The Hague.
Founded in 2013, the Cambridge group provides artificial intelligence-based cybersecurity services. About 2,300 people work at Darktrace. Turnover is $545 million. Under the leadership of Thoma Bravo, the company wants to grow significantly, especially in the United States.
The company has a branch in The Hague, acquired after the acquisition of Cybersprint, the specialist in attack surface management (asm) founded by Pieter Jansen.
Ghost customers?
Darktrace became discredited in 2023 after the publication of a report by New York-based Quintessential Capital Management. It alleged that Darktrace was feeding ghost customers through a network of “willing resellers.” This capital provider also alleged that the company appeared to have incorrectly accounted for hardware sales as software and may have misrepresented the nature of the revenues. Darktrace denied the allegations, according to The Financial Times.
The British business newspaper points out another blemish that remains attached to Darktrace: the company cannot get rid of tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch of Autonomy. Lynch and his wife own about seven percent of the shares. Should the deal between Thoma Bravo and Darktrace go through, the couple could rake in almost £300 million.
Fraud
This software company was sold to HP in 2011 for eleven billion dollars, but turned out to be a pig in a poke. Barely a year later, HP had to write off two-thirds of the acquisition value. According to the computer group, it was deceived in the sale and that Autonomy’s finances and growth prospects were not as rosy as the company made it seem. Autonomy’s financial director has already been convicted of fraud; co-founder Lynch has yet to appear; he says he is innocent.
According to Darktrace, the lawsuit relates to events that occurred at Autonomy long before Darktrace was founded. Interestingly, Darktrace was founded partly with money from Lynch’s investment fund Invoke Capital, according to The Financial Times.
