Private Equity · Profile from Private Equity Research Companion
Francisco Partners
A technology-focused private equity firm founded in 1999 in the San Francisco Bay Area, best known for complex carve-outs from large technology companies, take-privates of sub-scale public tech companies, and a long list of mid-market software, healthcare IT and fintech deals. It manages roughly ~$45bn (reported, 2024) across flagship, Agility (smaller deals) and credit strategies.
At a glance
- Founded
- August 1999, Menlo Park / San Francisco, California
- Founders
- Dipanjan "DJ" Deb, David Stanton, Sanford "Sandy" Robertson, Neil Garfinkel, Benjamin Ball
- Strategy
- Control and structured investments in technology and technology-enabled businesses; carve-outs; take-privates; credit
- AUM
- ~$2.5bn (2000) → ~$10bn (2015) → ~$25bn (2020) → ~$45bn (2024) (approximate)
- Leadership (2026)
- DJ Deb (Co-Founder & CEO); senior partners including Ezra Perlman and Petri Oksanen (reported co-presidents) and a broader partner group
11 deals and moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2004
SMART Modular
Carve-Out from Solectron
2014
NSO Group
Majority Acquisition of a Spyware Maker
2015
Procera Sandvine
Take-Privates, Merger and Collapse
2016
Bomgar BeyondTrust
Secondary Buyout and Privileged-Access Roll-Up
2018
LegalZoom
Minority Secondary Investment and IPO
2018
Verifone
Take-Private
2020
Forcepoint
Carve-Out from Raytheon Technologies and Government-Unit Sale to TPG
2021
Boomi
Carve-Out from Dell Technologies with TPG
2022
Merative
Carve-Out
2023
Sumo Logic
Take-Private
2025
Jamf
Take-Private