Sandvine sold to US private equity firm for $483 million

Waterloo’s Sandvine — a highly profitable developer of network policy control software for fixed and mobile operators — has been acquired by San Francisco-based private equity firm Vector Capital for $483 million. The move comes just a year after the Ontario government invested $15-million in the firm’s $169-million expansion project to ensure that new job hires would take place in the province. Vector plans to take the company private as it transitions to fully virtualized solutions for its global customer base. The Ontario government’s investment was made through the New Economy Stream of its massive Jobs & Prosperity Fund targeting advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and information and communications technologies. In 2010, Sandvine signed an R&D agreement with Ontario to receive up to $25.5 million in tax credits between 2009 and 2014 to help create 75 new positions and retain 195 jobs. Sandvine reported revenue of $120.7 million, in 2016 and $33.3 million in Q1/17.