Today Redgate announced that we are partnering with Bregal Sagemount, a growth-focused private equity firm. There are no details of terms, and you can read the press release. It’s an opportunity for us to use this investment to drive growth forward in our products and solutions in the future.
I’ve been with Redgate since 2006, when they acquired SQL Server Central. At the time, a lot of people expressed concerns and worry about the acquisition. We announced it at the PASS Summit to a very mixed reaction from people who used the site. I tried to reassure people as best I could, noting that Redgate hadn’t expressed any plans to make major changes other than reduce external advertising.
They didn’t, and I’ve continued to run SQL Server Central for the last 18 years as a part of Redgate. While my job has changed in many ways, that has remained consistent, and I think we’ve delivered on helping the community learn, ask and answer questions, becoming better data professionals along the way.
The same types of assurances I gave are being given from various leaders at Redgate now, and I am taking them at face value. I know the founders of Redgate want to company to succeed and the fact that they didn’t sell outright is encouraging.
That being said, I’m nervous. I’ve been a part of restructurings, investments, sales, and more in the past, with mixed success. Whenever the foundations shift, I usually start looking for a new position. I’m not doing that today, but I am nervous because I don’t like big change.
I am hopeful this will mean that Redgate can tackle a few things that we’ve struggled to do and that we’ll invest in growing our company in ways that we struggled to do in the last decade. One of my hopes (selfishly) is an investment in SQL Server Central, which has languished a bit the last few years. We made a platform change in 2019 (not my choice) and we’ve had some lingering issues since then. Most things work, but some don’t work well. Some are broken, and there are lingering issues that are either annoying or I’d like to change.
I also think this investment may help spur some changes in products and solutions that help customers solve more database issues. We are a for-profit company and revenue will certainly matter, but more investment in staff is always needed and wanted. If there’s one thing I’ve seen in the last 18 years is that there is always a backlog of things to work on, and I’m hopeful we’ll be able to not only tackle some of those things, but continue to deliver more value every week.
I’m optimistic about the future at Redgate, and nervous, all at the same time, but for now, I’m not looking to make a change.
Voice of the DBA 
Steve/Redgate – Having had personal experience/dealings with private equity firms acquiring companies I know that anyone at RedGate is unable to speak honestly/freely about this and some may even be required to promote it whether they believe in it or not. All I can say is that I pray this PEF (Private Equity Firm) doesn’t slowly or even quickly destroy what you guys at RedGate have built. PEF’s don’t have a reputation for being investors that help the business long term but more like short term vultures that asset strip and who start borrowing against the business until the business hits the max on its credit line and then the PEF has the business file for bankruptcy. They structure the whole thing so that the PEF walks away with all the benefits and none of the costs while leaving the company and its employees with a load of debt. While the details of the deal were not provided in that press release it did indicate that this PEF is now the majority shareholder which means it controls the business. I’ve come to see doing business with PEF’s as being the equivalent to dealing with the devil. Sagemount the PEF, is part of Bregal Investments, the investment arm of the Cofra Group (Brenninkmeijer family holding company). As an example of what I am referring to in terms of how PEF’s operate is the case with Blue Harvest Fisheries. U.S. lawmakers have scrutinized Bregal Partners (a separate investment team under the same parent company, Bregal Investments) regarding the 2023 bankruptcy of Blue Harvest Fisheries. Lawmakers accused the firm of “stripping” the company of assets and value while leaving it “saddled with its debt” before the bankruptcy filing. This is the exact same method a number of PEFs use. They are more like vultures then anything beneficial at least in the long term. Since not every PEF is the same, perhaps this Sagemount may be one of the exceptions and I do hope it is for I would be very saddened as would many if Redgate were to fall prey to the tactic of asset stripping and debt maximizing many PEF’s operate by. This is one time where I want to be wrong.
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Completely understand, and I haven’t been told what to say or not to say, other than be smart.
I am wary of PE firms, and in general, I think they have wrecked lots of companies. I’m hopeful that this isn’t the case, mostly because I have to put my trust in our founders and C-levels that they performed due diligence, and that the firm isn’t lying. I think one good thing is that it’s hard to strip out good things from us, though they could certainly milk price increases and reduce development.
We’ll see. I’m trying to stay optimistic for now.
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