Backup bods Datto to merge with Autotask in suits' shopping spree

Backup supplier Datto, with its combined on-premises/public cloud offering, has been scooped up by private equity.

Datto was founded in 2007 by CEO Austin McChord, harvesting $25m in A-round funding in 2013, and $75m in a 2015 B-round. It bought Backupify in 2014 and Open Mesh in January this year.

It is now being purchased by Vista Equity Partners and will be merged with Vista's Autotask business to become a single managed service platform providing IT management and data protection/business continuity.

Vista says the combined organisations have some 1,300 employees with offices in nine countries, and their nearly 13,000 customers service more than 500,000 SMBs in 125 countries worldwide.

McChord, who will be CEO of the combined operation, burbled: "We're honoured to be joining forces with both the world's premier software investor, Vista Equity Partners, and with Autotask, the provider of the most essential tools for the MSP space." Yeah, yeah.

Autotask CEO Mark Cattini takes a walk upstairs to become a strategic advisor to the Board. The transaction, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, is expected to close by the end of the year. We're told that terms of the deal will not be disclosed.

But we can guess, oh yes. Total Datto funding is $100m. It's got thousands of customers and McChord gets to to run the combined show; he's the CEO hero here. El Reg suggests that Datto's investors received at least a 2:1 payout and possibly more.

At a 3:1 level that means, simplistically, $300m was paid by Vista. It's a big bet by Vista and no doubt McChord is fuelled by fresh share options to grow the biz and become richer still. ®