Raytheon Company and Vista Equity Partners have completed on May 29, a joint venture transaction creating a new company that combines Websense, a Vista Equity portfolio company, and Raytheon Cyber Products, a product line of Raytheon’s Intelligence, Information and Services business. The newly-formed commercial cybersecurity company will be known on an interim basis as Raytheon|Websense. The company expects to introduce a new brand identity upon completion of standard organizational integration activity.
Under the terms of the joint venture transaction originally announced on April 20, 2015, Raytheon owns 80.3 percent of the new company. Vista Equity Partners owns 19.7 percent. The joint venture will start operations immediately and will be based in Austin, Texas. John R. McCormack has been named CEO of the new company.
"The creation of this new commercial cybersecurity company allows us to leverage deep domain expertise to offer our customers unique capabilities that will help defend against the vast, advanced scope threats that exist today," said Thomas A. Kennedy, Raytheon Company Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We are excited to bring these advanced, defense-grade cyber solutions to our existing and new customers."
Joint Venture Formation
As disclosed in the transaction announcement press release, Raytheon has invested $1.9 billion (net of cash acquired) to acquire Websense, of which $600 million is in the form of an intercompany loan to the joint venture. Raytheon has also contributed the assets of Raytheon Cyber Products and related intellectual property, which is valued at $400 million. Vista Equity Partners has made a new cash investment of approximately $335 million for 19.7 percent of the equity interest in the joint venture. Raytheon will consolidate the operating results of the joint venture, which will be financially reported as a separate business segment of Raytheon.
"The combination of Websense and Raytheon Cyber Products enables us to deliver unprecedented levels of innovation that better protect customers in today’s incredibly dynamic and complex business environment," said McCormack. "Advanced attacks and data theft are the new normal; we believe this joint venture provides customers the best defense against such threats."
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