Thoma Bravo is arranging about US$2.7 billion in bank debt to finance its acquisition of Verint Systems, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Verint is a US-based provider of customer service automation software.

Banco Santander is leading the loan deal, which could launch in the leveraged loan market as early as next month, the sources said.

Thoma Bravo plans to combine Verint with Calabrio, another customer service software company in its portfolio, and use some of the new financing to repay Calabrio’s existing private debt.

Lenders on Calabrio’s current debt include HPS Investment Partners, Monroe Capital, Golub Capital, and New Mountain Capital.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ Private equity firms increasingly leverage portfolio synergies to optimize deal structures

Thoma Bravo’s plan to combine Verint with existing portfolio company Calabrio demonstrates how private equity firms extract additional value by creating integrated platforms from separate acquisitions.

The firm previously executed this strategy in 2018 when it merged MeridianLink and CRIF Lending Solutions, creating a financial services software platform serving 1,200 customers and over 300,000 end users2.

The Verint-Calabrio combination allows Thoma Bravo to use the $2.7 billion in new bank debt not just for the acquisition, but to refinance Calabrio’s more expensive private debt, which currently pays 5.5 percentage points over benchmark rates1.

This approach transforms what could be two separate investments into a single, larger platform while optimizing the capital structure across both companies.

By replacing Calabrio’s private debt with cheaper bank financing, Thoma Bravo can reduce overall borrowing costs while building a more comprehensive customer service automation offering.

2️⃣ Mega-deals signal private equity’s aggressive deployment of record capital reserves

Thoma Bravo’s back-to-back major acquisitions—the $12.3 billion Dayforce deal followed immediately by the $2 billion Verint transaction—reflect the firm’s massive scale and rapid capital deployment strategy.

The firm now manages approximately $184 billion in assets as of March 2025, positioning it among the largest software-focused private equity investors globally3.

These consecutive deals, involving $6 billion and $2.7 billion in debt commitments respectively, demonstrate how the largest private equity firms can execute multiple billion-dollar transactions simultaneously1.

The speed and scale suggest Thoma Bravo is capitalizing on current market conditions to rapidly expand its software portfolio, leveraging its substantial capital base to outbid competitors on premium assets.

This acquisition pace also reflects the competitive dynamics in private equity, where firms with the largest funds can move quickly on multiple high-value targets without capital constraints limiting their deal flow.