Jamf Holding Corp., the Minneapolis-based manager of Apple devices for businesses, is buying Wandera, a security technology company, for $400 million.
The all-cash deal is the biggest ever for Jamf and will help it offer more security capabilities to corporate customers.
Jamf announced the deal late Tuesday when it also released quarterly results that showed another sizable revenue gain and a smaller operating loss. The company has maintained a growth rate in excess of 36% to its annual recurring revenue for four straight quarters.
But Jamf shares fell 5% to $29.86 on Wednesday, falling below $30 for the first time since January. The stock traded as high as $40.51 in February.
"We don't get it," David Hynes, analyst at Canaccord Genuity, wrote in a note to investors Wednesday. "Perhaps there's fear that the firm will have to access the capital markets to fund its deal for Wandera."
Jamf said it planned to pay for Wandera with $160 million of cash on hand and a loan for the rest.
Wandera, started in 2012 and based in San Francisco, is a rising player in a niche of the data security industry known for an approach called "zero trust." Users in a zero-trust network must provide several forms of authentication to prove their identity before they can proceed to work.
The zero-trust approach gained attention and market share during the pandemic, when many corporate employees worked from home and needed access to applications and data from there or other remote locations.
In a statement, Eldar Tuvey, co-founder and CEO of Wandera, said, "By combining with Jamf, we can offer our customers a truly integrated access and security platform."
The company's quarterly results showed that Jamf continues to benefit from the recent technological upgrade by Apple to computers run by new chips, called M1, that it designed. Apple is rolling out a new desktop computer with M1 chips this month, after launching notebook computers with the chip late last year.
Analysts estimate Apple's computer unit sales doubled during the first three months of the year, far outpacing sales growth in the broader PC industry.
Because of the chip, Jamf chief executive Dean Hager told investors, "We believe Mac will increasingly become the device of choice for many in the workplace and Jamf is best positioned to help organizations easily adopt and get the most out of this new technology over time."
