Private equity firm PNI Canada Acquireco purchased Sandvine Corp. in a deal worth more than $444 million. PNI will combine Sandvine with Procera Networks.
Procera Networks was acquired by Francisco Partners, an affiliate company of PNI, in 2015 for about $240 million. Procera, which focuses on enhancing the broadband Internet experience by using traffic analytics, will be combined with Sandvine, which makes broadband network management tools.
The news comes after a month-long bidding war for Sandvine between PNI and Vector Capital, which offered $365 million for the company in May. However, when PNI announced it was considering a rival bid for Sandvine in June, Sandvine’s shares jumped to $3.16 per share — a two-year high. That was higher than Vector’s offer, which was equivalent to $3 per share, Bloomberg reported.
Exactly how Procera and Sandvine products will be merged is still uncertain. “It’s too early to tell at this point” said a Sandvine spokesman. Procera CEO Lyndon Cantor and Procera CFO Richard Deggs will be in charge of the combined company. However, it will retain the Sandvine name.