Vista Equity Partners purchases Acquia in $1bn acquisition

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Acquia will remain committed to Drupal and open source

(Image credit: Dries Buytaert)

Vista Equity Partners has purchased the web content management and digital experience platform (DXP) company Acquia in a deal valued at $1bn.

The private equity firm has a penchant for acquiring tech companies that are undervalued and turning them around for a large profit as it did with Marketo which it acquired in 2016 for $1.8bn and later sold to Adobe for $4.75bn.

Founder and chairman of Vista Equity Partners, Robert F. Smith explained the reasoning behind its decision to acquire Acquia in a press release, saying:

“The world’s leading and most innovative digital brands understand that their ability to deliver a seamless digital customer experience is essential to their success. Acquia understands this and is leading the way in providing innovative solutions to its customers while, at the same time, giving back to the open source community. We are thrilled to partner with Acquia and believe the company is well-positioned to capitalize on the tremendous opportunity in the DXP marketplace.” 

Acquia acquisition

Acquia is a SaaS company which was co-founded by Dries Buytaert and Jay Batson to provide enterprise products, services and technical support for the open-source content management platform Drupal. In a blog post on his personal site, Buytaert noted how Vista Equity Partners' acquisition of Acquia will be beneficial to both the Drupal and open source communities, saying:

“This investment should be great news for the Drupal and Mautic communities as we'll have the right resources to compete against other solutions, and our deep commitment to Drupal, Mautic and Open Source will be unchanged. In fact, we will continue to increase our current level of investment in Open Source as we grow our business.”

Acquia is the commercial arm of the open-source Drupal project which Buytaert started in his dorm room at the University of Antwerp back in the year 2000.

Via TechCrunch

Anthony Spadafora
Anthony Spadafora

After working with the TechRadar Pro team for the last several years, Anthony is now the security and networking editor at Tom’s Guide where he covers everything from data breaches and ransomware gangs to the best way to cover your whole home or business with Wi-Fi. When not writing, you can find him tinkering with PCs and game consoles, managing cables and upgrading his smart home.