Good morning, Hubsters. MK Flynn here with the Wire. In keeping with Tech Tuesday, Thoma Bravo just announced this morning that it has closed the take-private deal for Ping Identity for $2.8 billion. "With digitization increasing across industries, identity and access management are of critical importance," said Seth Boro, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo. The firm has been snatching up companies focused on identity management all year. Last week, the PE firm agreed to buy ForgeRock in an all-cash deal valued at about $2.3 billion. In August, the firm closed the acquisition of SailPoint Technologies, which develops enterprise identity security software, in a take-private all-cash transaction worth $6.9 billion. Secular growth. Earlier today, Stockholm-headquartered EQT announced the completion of its merger with Hong Kong-based Baring Private Equity Asia to create BPEA EQT. I spoke with Christian Sinding, the CEO of EQT, back in March on the day the deal was announced. “What’s fascinating about Asia as a region of the world is that it’s continuing to grow significantly faster – and will do so for the coming decades – than the rest of the world,” he said. “Forty-plus percent of GDP growth will be generated in that region. The private equity market itself is growing about twice as fast as in the western world, and we believe that will continue to accelerate. And what you’ve seen, first in North America, and then in Europe, is, as private equity becomes more well known as an asset class, and as the middle class grows, as companies get larger, as managers become more professional, as the capital markets develop – all these things contribute to more private equity activity. We think it’s a really interesting space to be in to make thematic investments in certain sectors and in certain types of companies across the region – and quite an important one to be in for us as a global private equity firm but also for our clients – to have exposure to the long-term secular growth that’s happening.” See my interview with Sinding here. And see more on today’s announcement in PE Hub Europe’s Dealflow newsletter, written by editor Craig McGlashan. Craig also reported today that AXA Spain is in exclusive negotiations with Groupe des Assurances du Crédit Mutuel to potentially buy its subsidiary Groupe Assurances du Crédit Mutuel España, a Spanish health insurer. Are you signed up for PE Hub Europe? We recently launched the new website, which provides in-depth coverage and exclusive insight on European private equity deals. Look to PE Hub Europe for: • The latest deal terms and pricing to bolster your negotiations • Deal trend analysis to know if a sector is hot or overheated • Relevant and accurate intelligence on fund manager activity • Rare insight about fresh investment opportunities & pending deals We are currently offering complimentary access to PE Hub Europe. Sign in or register to start reading. Dear reader. PE Hub has launched a new reader survey, and we’d love to hear from you. Let us know how we’re doing at the survey here. As always, you can reach out to me to share insights and provide feedback at [email protected]. This will be my last Wire for a bit, as I’ll be on vacation – or taking annual leave, as they say in the UK. A night at the opera is one treat in store for me, as I’ll be seeing my favorite opera, Verdi’s La Traviata. Buyouts’ Chris Witkowsky, PE Hub’s Aaron Weitzman and PE Hub Europe’s Craig McGlashan will be writing the Wire until I return on the 31st. Happy dealmaking until then, MK Read the full wire commentary on PE Hub ... | 