Thoma Bravo completes the acquisition of ForgeRock and combines ForgeRock into Ping Identity.

Thoma Bravo, one of the largest software investors, has over US$127 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2023, and ForgeRock, a software company focusing on CIAM (customer identity and access management), announced yesterday (Aug. 23^rd, 2023) the completion of Thoma Bravo’s acquisition of ForgeRock in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $2.3 billion.

Thoma Bravo also announced that it will merge ForgeRock into its portfolio company, Ping Identity. The merged company will be positioned to better serve customers across the dynamic and fast-growing Identity and Access Management market by providing enhanced products and services, broader geographic support, and increased innovation. The new Ping Identity will seek to accelerate the delivery of identity security experiences for the customers, employees, and partners of companies worldwide.

PAC opinion:

ForgeRock recently announced good financial data for Q2/2023 and is well recognized in the market as a leader for IAM. The same is valid for Ping Identity. With the merger, the companies close the gap in size and offerings to main competitors like OKTA.

However, we must pay attention to the organizational and, above all, product-related effort required to integrate the two companies. Another critical factor is how SaaS customers, in particular, will support this integration.

Nevertheless, we think this step is valuable for ForgeRock and Ping Identity, as well as for Thoma Bravo in the long run.