Private equity firm Permira sold an 11 percent stake in remote control software maker TeamViewer for roughly 700 million euros (US$781 million) to institutional investors, Reuters reports.
Still, Permira retains a 51.5 percent stake in TeamViewer. Also, the private equity firm has set a 90-day lock-up period during which it will not sell any more shares, the report notes.
Remote control software has been a hot-button technology for MSPs (managed IT service providers) -- both for positive and negative reasons in recent months.
During the recent coronavirus outbreak, businesses and MSPs have increasingly embraced collaboration and remote control software for "work from home" employee contingency plans and IT support. Business and technology giants such as JPMorgan Twitter, among many other companies, are testing work-at-home contingency efforts across the U.S. That reality has triggered strong investor interest in remote control software in recent days.
On the downside, hackers increasingly target and/or hijack remote control software credentials to access MSP and end-customer systems. MSP software vendors have called on partners and customers to embrace two-factor authentication (2FA) to mitigate such risks.
Remote Control Software Options for MSPs
Within the MSP market, TeamViewer completes with ConnectWise Control, LogMeIn and SplashTop, among other options. Private equity firms Francisco Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital recently acquired LogMeIn, which recently had job cuts. Thoma Bravo has owned ConnectWise since 2019.
