In November 2019, global investment firm Vista Equity Partners announced it had acquired a majority share of Maryland-based tech company Sonatype. Sonatype describes itself as a “company that scales DevOps through open source governance and software supply chain automation.” An exclusive investor in enterprise software, Vista understands the importance and demand of software innovation.
Sonatype CEO Wayne Jackson and CTO Brian Fox addressed the announcement in a company blog post. Jackson and Fox’s message emphasized the value of the partnership, stating, “At Sonatype, our vision, strategy, and execution have long been focused on helping software engineering teams scale DevOps by automatically harnessing all of the good that open source has to offer, while minimizing the inherent risks. Vista, perhaps more than anyone else in the world, understands our vision and appreciates the strategic importance of our mission. For this reason, they are the perfect organization for us to partner with as we continue to grow and scale.”
Vista viewed this partnership as an opportunity to support Sonatype’s growth in DevOps systems used by software companies around the world. Patrick Severson, Senior Managing Director at Vista, said of the growth opportunities, “Open source tools are an invaluable resource that enable companies and developers to keep up with the demand to deliver software applications at a rapidly accelerating pace. Wayne (Jackson) and his team have built an impressive business and an innovative portfolio of products that empower software development teams to continuously innovate responsibly and with the highest quality and most secure open source across every stage of the digital supply chain. We are pleased to partner with Sonatype as they continue to grow their company in the large and rapidly expanding DevOps market.”
