“When private equity comes amalgamating, it is time to start migrating“
Private equity loves software companies. They’re pretty good at extracting cash from the business, but at customers’ expense. You don’t want to rely on software owned by private equity. Prices and the company’s debt burden will soar, product development and support will crater, and history says they’ll skimp on security (hello Ivanti, LastPass, SolarWinds…). Software companies get worse under private equity ownership.
Software Migration Alerts
We have issued migration alerts for these companies after their acquisition or announced acquisition by private equity. You should avoid purchasing software from these companies and, if you are an existing customer, get on the migration plan immediately.
Synopsys (Software Integrity Unit)
This list is not even remotely complete. You should avoid any software owned by:
Broadcom – Symantec, CA, VMware. Not technically a PE firm but running the PE handbook (and better than PE itself). Their scorched earth treatment of VMware is the Platonic form of how software customers get screwed by private equity ownership (and no doubt Broadcom is the new role model for the rest of private equity).