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"We live in a world in which courage is in less supply than genius."

-Peter Thiel

April 28,2017

Thales to Acquire Guavus

Financial Information*
  • Enterprise Value                           ≤ $215 million
  • EV/2017 Revenue                        7.2x
  • EV/LTM EBITDA                          N/A
Transaction Facts
  • French tech supplier Thales S.A. (EPA:HO) announced today that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire San Mateo-based Guavus, a developer of real-time big data analytics software.
  • Specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed. However, according to the press release, Guavus will be valued at up to $215 million, subject to the achievement of specific sales growth targets.
  • Guavus’ revenues are expected to exceed $30 million for the current fiscal year. The transaction’s impact on Thales’ 2017 EBIT is expected to be non-material.
  • The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of this year.
Big Data, Big Money
  • Filling in the Gaps: This is the latest in a series of technology deals that Thales has pursued as it looks to augment its own vast offerings suite, which ranges from in-flight entertainment to satellite and missile technology. Analytics capabilities are particularly valuable to defense clients, who seek to quickly and efficiently process large sums of data.
  • High-Value Assets: Guavus employs 250 people across California, Canada and India. Looking at value per employee, at the maximum enterprise value outlined in the press release, Thales is paying roughly $860,000. This testifies to the premium that higher value software and services companies command, and is significantly higher than Thales’, which is closer to $306,000. 
  • Hot Commodity: Demand for analytics capabilities crosses all industries. Within the SaaS space, ERP vendor Infor announced this week it will be acquiring business analytics vendor Birst. Bigger players like Salesforce and Workday were behind some of the larger acquisitions in the space in 2016, with the purchases of BeyondCore and Platfora, respectively.
For more information about this transaction, click here to read the press release.
*Financial Information derived from the press release.
martinwolf was not the advisor in this transaction.
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