Perforce to acquire DevOps pioneer Puppet

Perforce Software has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Puppet, an infrastructure automation software platform which enables users to deliver, update, monitor, and secure software across physical and virtual machines. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

By increasing productivity, eliminating mistakes, enhancing security, and accelerating software delivery for DevOps teams, Puppet’s solutions support customers on their digital transformation journeys. Puppet was an early developer of what is now referred to as “infrastructure-as-code.” More than 40,000 organizations have benefited from Puppet’s open source and commercial solutions as the Company’s infrastructure automation technology provides solutions to strengthen its customers’ security posture, compliance, and business resiliency beyond the data center to the cloud. Additionally, Puppet’s annual State of DevOps Report is regarded as the informative source for updates on DevOps adoption and advancement across organizations by over 35,000 technical and managerial professionals polled via ten separate surveys since 2011.

“This acquisition expands our product offering by adding new capabilities for enterprise DevOps teams to manage and secure their critical infrastructure,” said Mark Ties, CEO of Perforce. “With Puppet, we will be providing our customers with access to a product portfolio that enables them to drive innovation on a global scale. We look forward to welcoming the Puppet team and continuing to offer the level of customer support, services, and community Puppet has established in the market.”

“Puppet has been in the DevOps space for over 15 years with a focus on infrastructure-as-code and operators. Going forward, however, we believe enterprise customers are looking for strategic partners who can provide more breadth and depth across the entire DevOps lifecycle. Integrating Puppet into Perforce does just that," said Yvonne Wassenaar, CEO of Puppet. "As part of Perforce, we believe we will be better positioned to service the breadth of DevOps needs our customers have while accelerating our own innovation to ensure customers can deliver, operate and automate their infrastructures at scale in the data center, across clouds, and out to the edge."

The addition of Puppet builds on Perforce’s existing DevOps portfolio, allowing Perforce to continue its focus on DevOps at scale and solve some of the most difficult automation challenges in the world’s largest enterprises. Like Perforce, Puppet delivers solutions to some of the biggest companies in the world, including, as of year-end 2021, 85 percent of the world’s largest banks and 80 percent of the world’s top technology organizations. Together, the combined company will be helping to drive innovation at its combined customer base, which includes 40 companies of the Fortune 50.

“With this strategic acquisition, Perforce is positioned to capitalize on market tailwinds driving demand for IT infrastructure automation,” said Evan Daar, Partner at Francisco Partners, and Sean Courtney, Senior Vice President at Clearlake, in a joint statement. “The addition of Puppet further enhances the capabilities Perforce can offer to its valued customers, and we look forward to catalyzing this opportunity to drive continued momentum for the platform.”

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter of 2022.