Progress acquires Seattle-based continuous automation software platform Chef for $220 million

Progress, an enterprise software provider, today announced plans to acquire Seattle-based software automation platform Chef for $220 million in cash. Progress said the acquisition will help the company to extend its product offerings in DevOps and DevSecOps with market-leading infrastructure automation. The acquisition is expected to close in October 2020, subject to obtaining regulatory consents and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

In a blog post, Chef CEO Barry Crist said, “We are excited to announce that Chef has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Progress. We expect the transaction to be finalized over the next 30 days or so and, once completed, Chef will become an integral part of Progress.”

Founded in 2008 by Adam Jacob, Barry Steinglass, Jesse Robbins, and Nathan Haneysmith, Seattle-based Chef provides complete infrastructure automation to build, deploy, manage and secure applications in modern multi-cloud and hybrid environments, as well as on-premises. Before the acquisition, Chef had over $70 million in annual recurring revenue. Since its inception, Chef has raised at least $105 million in venture funding.

Chef is a leader in continuous automation, an innovator in application automation, and a pioneer of the DevSecOps movement. Its mission is to help the most enduring and transformative companies use technology to become fast, efficient, and innovative software-driven organizations. Chef products include Chef Enterprise Automation Stack, Chef Infra, Chef InSpec, Chef Habitat, Chef Compliance, and Chef Desktop.

“Chef is a market leader with best-in-class products, a vibrant developer community, an impressive blue-chip customer base, and highly skilled and engaged employees,” said Yogesh Gupta, CEO, Progress. “Chef has built a successful business, product portfolio, and go-to-market strategy and we will expand and accelerate that by bringing our resources to bear, building on the momentum Chef has established to date.”

Progress is a trusted provider of some of the best products to develop, deploy and manage high-impact business applications and Chef will enhance that position by providing industry-leading compliance and application automation products for multi-cloud and on-prem infrastructure. The acquisition will bolster Progress’ core offerings, enabling customers to respond faster to business demands and improve efficiency. The acquisition also aligns with Progress’ growth strategy through accretive acquisitions and will add both scale and cash flow.

Progress will acquire Chef for $220 million in cash, subject to customary adjustments. Progress will fund the transaction with existing cash on hand and funds secured under its existing credit facility. The transaction is expected to be accretive beginning in Q1 FY2021 to both non-GAAP earnings per share and cash flow.

“This acquisition perfectly aligns with our growth strategy and meets the requirements that we’ve previously laid out: a strong recurring revenue model, technology that complements our business, a loyal customer base, and the ability to leverage our operating model and infrastructure to run the business more efficiently,” continued Gupta. “We’re thrilled to add Chef to our product portfolio and are confident that this acquisition will provide benefit to both organizations, as well as our customers, partners, investors, and the Chef community.”

“Chef and Progress share a vision for the future of DevSecOps and Progress will provide the scale to further drive Chef’s platform forward and deliver additional value to our customers,” said Barry Crist, CEO, Chef. “At the same time, Chef fills a need in the Progress portfolio in DevSecOps, infrastructure, application, and compliance automation that is highly complementary to its existing products. For Chef, this acquisition is our next chapter, and Progress will help enhance our growth potential, support our Open Source vision, and provide broader opportunities for our customers, partners, employees, and community.”