Arcserve, Multiple Cloud Backup Software Companies Up for Sale -

Arcserve and at least two additional cloud backup and disaster recovery (BDR) software companies essentially are up for sale, sources tell ChannelE2E.

Much of the chatter involves private equity firms exploring potential acquisitions and/or exits in the BDR market. But bids and valuations could vary greatly because the BDR and business continuity companies have mixed revenue models -- blending highly-valued cloud services with more traditional on-premises software offerings, the sources say.

Cloud Backup, Data Protection Software Companies for Sale

Among the potential developments to track:

Marlin Equity Partners is shopping Arcserve to potential buyers, PE Hub reported. ChannelE2E has confirmed the chatter with two sources in the private equity market. Marlin Equity acquired Arcserve in 2014 from the former CA Technologies. Marlin tucked Zetta into Arcserve in 2017. The BDR business, born to support Novell NetWare in the 1990s, has been overhauled to better address cloud-driven data protection. Arcserve has a partner program but data protection company hasn't made much noise with next-generation MSPs in the SMB sector.

Evercore, a financial advisory firm, may be assisting a private equity firm with a potential asset sale. The asset is a major global BDR company that has a strong VAR footprint and longstanding relationships in the MSP sector. We've got more details but we're waiting for more comments from multiple parties.

We're aware of one other sub-$100 million BDR player, currently owned by private equity, that's mulling an ownership change by the second half of 2020.

The deal chatter arrives after recent funding and/or acquisition moves involving such data protection companies as Veeam, Acronis and Carbonite, among many others.

Datto IPO?

On somewhat related news, Datto, owned by Vista Equity Partners since late 2017, may be preparing for an IPO in 2020, channel chatter suggests. We haven't independently confirmed the chatter but we're poking around.

Stay tuned for more updates to this blog. We'll be sharing more perspectives in the text above later today.