Datto’s Rob Rae sees Datto’s successful going public on Wednesday as a significant plus for Datto MSP partners because it strengthens both the company and the MSP business as a whole.
On Wednesday, Datto officially went public, coming in at $27 per share, at the top of its $24-27 range, for the 22 million shares issued. It rose to over $32 early, before settling back to a modest gain at $27.10 by the end of the day. Vista Equity Partners will continue to own approximately 68.9% of the outstanding common stock, so Datto remains a “controlled company” under the corporate governance standards of the NYSE. Both Austin McChord, Datto’s original founder and CEO, and Tim Weller, who became CEO in 2019 when McChord decided to step down, were at the NYSE on Wednesday to ring the opening bell.
All this matters deeply in the Datto MSP community only to those who decided to double down on the company and buy some of their stock. While these certainly exist, most MSPs’ primary concern with Datto going public is to what degree it will impact their business – positively or negatively, and substantially or negligibly.
Rob Rae, vice president of Business Development at Datto, is very bullish about the impact of Datto going public for its partners.
“I see this as a positive thing for MSPs and a reflection of where the MSP market is, and where it is going,” Rae said. “I can’t express enough how excited we are at Datto to continue to do this, even during these times of COVID.”
Rae said that senior leadership changes resulting from going public are unlikely, nothwithstanding the fact that Vista Equity Partners Co-Founder and President, who had been on the Datto Board, stepped down just before the IPO.
“There are no changes coming of which I am aware,” he indicated.
Rae said that the real takeaway for partners lies in the fact that the success of the Datto IPO shows the momentum behind the managed services business in general.
“For MSPs, I think the IPO is extremely significant,” he said. “There are a couple different reasons for this. First, it is a reflection of how strong the MSP market is. It is showing strong growth worldwide, because of the continuing importance of digital transformation and security. MSPs’ role in supporting end users has become more central.”
The second reason, Rae said, refers to the capital raised by the IPO.
“The initial capital investment here will let us do more around new technologies and possibly acquisitions,” he stated. “The result will be better technology for the MSPs. This is something we have been talking about a lot internally around the IPO, how it plays a key part in bringing about ways we can make our MSPs better and stronger.”
