Rapid7 Revives Possible Sale To Private Equity: Report

The cybersecurity vendor is reportedly once again exploring its options for being acquired.

Cybersecurity vendor Rapid7 is reportedly exploring its options for being acquired by private equity investors for the second time in two years.

According to a Reuters report Monday, publicly traded Rapid7 is in “early” discussions about a potential acquisition deal with several private equity firms, among them Bain Capital, Advent and EQT.

[Related: 5 Major Security Vendors That Could Be Acquired By Private Equity]

The company said in a statement Monday that it “does not comment on market rumors or speculation.”

A previous sale exploration process by Rapid7, which Reuters had reported about in February 2023, was later dropped, according to the report Monday.

Subsequently, Rapid7 has faced pressure from activist investor Jana Partners to prompt a sale of the company, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal in June.

Rapid7’s stock price climbed 4.2 percent Monday, closing at $40.55 a share and giving the vendor a market capitalization of $2.54 billion.

Rapid7 offers a number of different security tools, including extended detection and response (XDR) and security information and event management (SIEM), which are used by security operations teams to pinpoint threats amid the massive amount of security data that is generated by today’s IT systems.

Recent years have seen numerous publicly traded cybersecurity vendors taken private through deals with private equity investors, including KnowBe4, Proofpoint, SailPoint and Ping Identity.

And just this month, private equity firm Thoma Bravo completed its $5.3 billion acquisition of Darktrace and, separately, Thoma portfolio company Sophos announced a deal to acquire publicly traded Secureworks for $859 million.