Information management provider OpenText Inc. today said that it will shell out $1.42 billion to acquire Carbonite Inc., a Boston-based data protection specialist.

OpenText develops software that helps organizations manage the documents and other business records scattered throughout their corporate network. Carbonite, in turn, sells cloud services for protecting those business records from data loss. The deal represents a logical expansion for OpenText that will bolster its product portfolio with an entire stable of new offerings.

Carbonite has a half-dozen data protection services that enable businesses to back up records kept on servers, employee devices and in Office 365, as well as automate related tasks such as failovers. The company’s other major specialty is data security. Carbonite moved into this market at the start of the year when it inked a deal to acquire breach prevention provider Webroot Inc. for $618.5 million.

That acquisition is one of the factors that helped the company attract OpenText’s $1.42 billion buyout offer. OpenText said that it plans to use the Webroot products to complement its Security Suite product family, which includes tools for blocking malware infections and detecting data misuse on employee devices.

The deal opens new growth avenues for the company. By bringing Carbonite’s products into the fold, OpenText can position itself as a one-stop shop for tools to manage an organization’s business records, back them up and protect them from hackers. The ability to buy everything from a single provider could prove to be an attractive proposition for information technology teams.

Another notable detail is that, thanks to Carbonite’s Webroot business unit, OpenText is set to become a fairly significant player in the cybersecurity technology ecosystem. A part of Webroot’s revenue comes from supplying threat intelligence about hacker activity to other makers of breach prevention tools. That threat intelligence is used in products from Cisco Systems Inc., Citrix Systems Inc., Palo Alto Networks Inc. and a long list of others. 

OpenText reportedly wasn’t the only player eyeing Carbonite. Last week, a report claimed that a number of private equity firms, including KKR and Vector Capital, had made bids for the company.

OpenText’s winning offer represents a respectable 78% premium to the last closing price of Carbonite’s stock before reports first emerged about the acquisition plans. Investors will receive $23 per share when the deal closes. OpenText’s stock rose 2.4% today, to $42.54 a share.

The acquisition is expected to be completed within 90 days pending customary closing conditions.

Photo: OpenText