People familiar with the situation said on Friday that buyout company Thoma Bravo LP has approached Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) to show interest in putting together an acquisition offer that would compete with Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk’s $43 billion offer.
According to the sources, Thoma Bravo, a private equity group with more than $103 billion in assets under management as of the end of December, has alerted Twitter that it is considering putting together an offer.
It’s unclear how much Thoma Bravo might be willing to offer, and there’s no guarantee that such a rival bid will materialize, according to the individuals, who declined to be identified since the topic is private.
A spokesperson for Thoma Bravo declined to comment, and officials for Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the New York Post, Thoma Bravo is exploring a bid for Twitter.
Thoma Bravo, LP is a private equity and growth capital business based in San Francisco, Chicago, and Miami, having offices in those cities. Since 2003, it has completed over 300 software deals totaling over $85 billion and manages a portfolio of over 40 software companies with annual revenues of $15 billion and 45,000 employees. The firm, which is owned wholly by Orlando Bravo and a few of his partners, was valued at $7 billion by Forbes in October 2019.
Thoma Bravo was managing private equity funds with over $70 billion in equity commitments in October 2020.
It is the successor to Stanley Golder and Carl Thoma’s firm, Golder Thoma & Co., which was founded in 1980.
After reviewing 898 funds formed between 2005 and 2014, the French business school HEC Paris, in collaboration with Dow Jones, declared Thoma Bravo the best-performing buyout investor in February 2019. According to public statistics collected by Forbes, Thoma Bravo’s funds returned 30 percent net annually, and the firm has sold or listed 25 investments worth a total of $20 billion, four times their cost, since the beginning of 2015.
Orlando Bravo, Thoma Bravo’s co-founder and managing partner, was designated the first Puerto Rican-born billionaire in October 2019, when he debuted at 287th place on Forbes’ 400 list of the wealthiest Americans.
