Fort Lauderdale Office Advises Tech Company in Billion Dollar Private Equity Sale
Tampa, Fla (March 13, 2019) – Fort Lauderdale Corporate Partner John Heber recently assisted Tampa-based software company ConnectWise in a $1.2 billion transaction that has created over 70 new millionaires. The company was acquired by Thoma Bravo, a San Francisco private equity firm.
ConnectWise has over 1,000 employees and each one of them was awarded restricted stock units (RSUs) under a company plan – a program created by Mr. Heber over four years ago. More than 17% of the $1.2 billion purchase price was paid to the 1,000 employees through the RSUs.
One year ago, it was uncertain that a sale transaction was ever going to occur and, as a result, the employees were starting to become ambivalent as to the company’s future. To address this issue, similar to the days of underwater stock options in the Silicon Valley in the mid-2000s, Mr. Heber worked with ConnectWise and its founder/CEO, Arnie Bellini, to develop an “RSU tender offer,” which gave the employees the ability to “cash-out” some of their RSUs. A year after this “tender offer,” the employees of ConnectWise were cashed out completely in the purchase by Thoma Bravo, creating more than 70 millionaires.
“This was a terrific result for a fantastic company with a real vision.” said Mr. Heber. “ConnectWise is a true Silicon Valley high-tech company success story, with the exception that they are located in Tampa, Florida. It was a pleasure helping them structure this deal.”
Learn more about the transaction from Tampa Bay’s Fox 13 News.
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