What does $2.8B buy you in today’s market?

News that private equity group Thoma Bravo is buying Ping Identity for $2.8 billion in cash broke earlier today, marking the beginning of the end of Ping’s life as a public company (at least for now).

Thoma Bravo will pay $28.50 per share in an all-cash transaction, a price that TechCrunch noted is a roughly 63% premium over the company’s pre-announcement share price. News of the sale emerged after Ping reported earnings that missed both profit and revenue estimates in the second quarter.

Given that M&A activity has been muted compared to 2021’s torrid pace, the deal is attracting attention. To better understand the transaction, we’re going to dive into Ping’s numbers to see what its sale price can tell us about the value of software companies today, and then riff on the identity market itself, part of the technology space with several public players and a recent history of falling values.

What $2.8B buys you today

Given that Ping announced its earnings at the same time as its sale to Thoma Bravo, we can directly compare its recent results with its newly disclosed sale price.