Thoma Bravo LLC will close its $2.3 billion acquisition of ForgeRock Inc. this week after the Justice Department declined to challenge the deal, people familiar with the decision said.
(Bloomberg) — Thoma Bravo LLC will close its $2.3 billion acquisition of ForgeRock Inc. this week after the Justice Department declined to challenge the deal, people familiar with the decision said.
The Justice Department’s antitrust lawyers had opened an in-depth probe of the acquisition amid concerns it would harm competition for customer-facing identity management software since the private equity firm already owns one of ForgeRock’s main competitors – Ping Identity Holding Corp. Thoma Bravo also bought a related company, SailPoint Technologies Holdings Inc., last year.
ForgeRock stock rose to the highest level this year after the news, climbing as much as 8.8% and trading at $23.19 at 12:44 p.m. in New York.
The companies met with top Justice Department officials last month in a bid to avoid a suit, Bloomberg reported earlier. They also extended the deadline on the antitrust review to Aug. 22 to give the agency more time to consider additional information and make a decision on the deal.
The Justice Department declined to comment. Spokespeople for Thoma Bravo and ForgeRock didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The private equity firm announced in October that it would buy ForgeRock for $23.25 per share. Two months later, the companies announced that the Justice Department investigation.
Antitrust advocates had pushed the agency to investigate the deal amid a Biden administration push to take a closer look at private equity, particularly “roll-ups,” in which a firm makes an initial acquisition and proceeds to acquire numerous businesses in the same sector.
(Updates with stock-price movement in third paragraph.)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.