LANDesk set for further growth after Thoma Bravo acquisition

Enterprise management suite vendor LANDesk is all set for greater heights following its recent acquisition by Thoma Bravo, a private investment firm, from its former parent company Emerson, for an undisclosed amount.

Power management company Emerson acquired Avocent, LANDesk's parent company, late last year, for its data center management portfolio.

Reports said Emerson -- which is one of LANDesk's largest clients -- found no significant use for the LANDesk portfolio, hence the sale.

Andy Ruse, vice president for Asia Pacific, LANDesk, denied this, saying the sale was a mutual decision for both companies, saying LANDesk wasn't exactly a strategic fit for Emerson.

With the acquisition by Thoma Bravo, LANDesk becomes a standalone company offering enterprise management suites to the market.

Ruse said the investment to the firm will enable it to grow quicker, especially that Thoma Bravo has vast experience in acquiring and boosting growth of a number of companies already. "They are an equity firm focusing on enterprise software. They've had 50 acquisitions already, and 15 of these are platform companies," he explained.

Ruse added that the funding will help them gain focus in the market, aside from making mergers and acquisitions quicker. The LANDesk executive, however, declined to mention possible companies they will acquire, but said that they already have a long list noted down.

"When we become a company with singular focus, we grow much quickly," Ruse shared. "Our focus allows us to grow with channel partners, and deliver better services to customers."

With this, Ruse he expects the $US150 million company to hit its growth target of 20 per cent this year, a growth figure they have experienced since 2002.

LANDesk currently offers solutions in three key areas of the enterprise: a suite for desktop management, a suite for security solutions management, and an ITIL-ceritified service desk solution.

LANDesk's desktop management suite improves TCO of hardware and software by providing greater visibility to their usage and lifecycle, as in software and operating systems distribution.

Their security management suite, on the other hand, integrates to the desktop management suite by providing patch management and antivirus management, among others. Additionally, they provide customers with their own flavor of an OEM antivirus.

LANDesk's service desk, meanwhile, provides incident, problems, and change platforms where users can track incidents and act on them, all using one screen.

Ruse said they see potential opportunities in the fact that at least five billion IP devices are now connected to the internet. "We see the market growing 10 times in the next 10 years. That is going to be a large driver for our business," he boldly predicts.