Oakley Capital investing in cPanel – Oakley Capital Investments Limited will invest in cPanel via the Oakley Funds. WebPros BV, the holding company that owns Plesk and Solus VM, and which Oakley Capital Private Equity III first invested in in April 2017 (when WebPros bought Plesk), is acquiring a majority stake in cPanel from its founder J. Nick Koston. Fund III will make a further investment of $50 million into WebPros as part of this transaction.
About cPanel
The blurb says – Established in 1997 by CEO J. Nick Koston, cPanel provides one of the internet infrastructure industry’s most reliable and intuitive control panel software platforms. With its rich feature set and customer first support, the fully-automated hosting platform empowers infrastructure providers and gives customers the ability to administer every facet of their website using simple, point-and-click software. Based in Houston, Texas, cPanel employs over 220 colleagues and has customers in more than 70 countries.
Oakley has a strategy to acquire leading internet infrastructure software businesses and help them keep their products active, supported and developed. Oakley is committed to making significant investments into, and growing headcount in, cPanel’s Houston headquarters.
The transaction is partly funded by an extension of a debt facility from an existing lender, TPG. Oakley Capital Investments’ indirect contribution to the new investment through its interest in Fund III is expected to be approximately GBP16.0 million. The valuation of OCI’s original stake in Plesk was GBP14.1 million at 31 December 2017.
Peter Dubens, Managing Partner of Oakley Capital Private Equity, commented: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to acquire one of the most well-respected businesses in internet infrastructure software. Oakley has significant experience of investing in this sector, and we look forward to working with Nick and the team to continue cPanel’s growth.”
J. Nick Koston, CEO of cPanel, Inc. commented: “This investment reflects a great step forward for cPanel. Our team has developed software that contributes to the success of millions of websites operating globally and looks forward to continuing to do so with the same passion that our loyal customers have come to love. This investment will give internet infrastructure providers access to a wider range of software, features and support. I am excited about what the future holds for the company and the great team at cPanel.”
OCI : Oakley Capital investing in cPanel