Corsair Being Sold? Is This Ship Ready to Sale
UPDATED!
For $525 Million USD EagleTree has bought the majority stake in Corsair. As part of the transaction, CORSAIR founder and Chief Executive Officer Andy Paul will maintain a sizable equity stake in the company and continue in his role as CEO.
“We are excited about the opportunity to partner with EagleTree and leverage the team’s consumer products expertise to further accelerate our progress,” said Andy Paul, Founder and CEO of CORSAIR. “We are very fortunate to have attracted such experienced investment partners.”
EagleTree Capital, which is a middle market private equity firm, is in advanced discussions to acquire Corsair Components, a manufacturer of computer peripherals and hardware , for more than $500 million USD.
Based in Freemont, California, Corsair makes high performance gaming equipment, USB flash drives, gaming keyboards, mice and headsets. It owns popular PC gaming brand Raptor Gaming, which it acquired in 2012.
Corsair is currently owned by Chief Executive Andy Paul, who founded the company in 1994. Francisco Partners made a $75 million investment in the company in 2013 after the company scrapped its IPO plans. Francisco did not respond to requests for comment. Razer Inc, backed by Intel Corp and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, is planning to go public later this year and is aiming for a valuation of over $3 billion, Reuters has reported.
EagleTree, formerly Wasserstein Partners, has secured committed financing from Goldman Sachs, Macquarie Group and BNP Paribas, they added. Societe Generale will also be part of the syndicate, one of the sources said. The banks are providing a roughly $330 million secured loan package with first- and second-lien seniority. The loans will put Corsair’s debt-to-Ebitda, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, at four and a half times on a first-lien basis and six times total. Goldman, Macquarie and BNP did not respond to requests for comment. Societe Generale declined to comment.
EagleTree will make a roughly 40 percent equity contribution to the purchase price.
EagleTree is expected to pay nine to 10 times Corsair’s Ebitda of roughly $55 million, which would value the company at around $525 million at the midpoint, the sources said.
