Datto Is Exploring Sale Of Company After Takeover Interest: Report

‘The interest in Datto from private equity companies is one more sign of the increasing value being placed on MSPs, MSSPs and the companies that serve them,’ says Joe Ussia, CEO of Infinite IT Solutions.

Datto is considering a possible sale of the company after it has received interest from private equity firms, Bloomberg reported.

The Norwalk, Conn.-based cloud-based data backup software company is working with a financial adviser to solicit interest from potential equity firms, according to a Bloomberg report.

CRN has reached out to Datto for comment but has not heard back by press time.

“The interest in Datto from private equity companies is one more sign of the increasing value being placed on MSPs, MSSPs and the companies that serve them,” said Joe Ussia, CEO of Infinite IT Solutions, Toronto, Ontario, which has been honored as one of the top 50 managed IT companies in Canada for six years in a row.

“This is an unprecedented time for MSPs,” said Ussia. “Look at the evolution from VAR to MSP to MSSP. Everyone is looking at this space and realizing that the value we provide for customers is unparalleled. Everyone is trying to capitalize on that value.”

[Related: Datto Buys Threat Detection And Response Vendor Infocyte]

Ussia, who is also the host of the IT4Whiskey podcast, a podcast by MSPs for MSPs, said Datto is one of the superstars of the MSP market. “Datto is a fantastic company that enables MSPs to deliver unparalleled value to their customers,” he said. “For MSPs to build that value on their own is too hard. Datto is a great company.”

Ussia said the secret to success for MSPs like Infinite IT Solutions, which is on the CRN MSP 500, is driving efficiencies and scale to deliver unmatched services to customers. In fact, he said, the MSP “shared services” model is what powers large multinational companies.

“The large global enterprise figured out this shared services model many years ago,” he said. “Large multinational companies don’t have IT departments for every branch. It is a centralized model. The shared services model is what drives efficiencies for MSPs.”

The pandemic has sparked an even greater appreciation for MSPs, said Ussia. “The market is realizing that there is money in this space,” he said. “We have gone from being looked at as low-margin commodity hardware providers to respected IT professionals and service providers.”

Datto’s stock stood at $25.60 per share Thursday morning, up about 9 percent from Wednesday. Datto has a market capitalization of $3.7 billion and is backed by Vista Equity Partners, which owned 39 percent of Datto’s shares as of Dec. 31, according to Bloomberg. Datto went public in October 2020 and since then shares have fallen 13 percent.

In January Datto purchased Austin, Texas-based cybersecurity vendor Infocyte to help MSPs protect, detect and respond to cyberthreats found within endpoints and cloud environments.