Clearlake Capital to buy Quest Software from Francisco Partners - WSJ

(Reuters) - Private equity firm Clearlake Capital has struck a deal to buy Quest Software Inc from Francisco Partners, valuing it at $5.4 billion including debt, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The deal is formally expected to be announced as soon as Monday, the report added.

Quest was part of Dell's software division, which the company divested in 2016 to focus on its technology portfolio and bolster its balance sheet after it agreed in October to buy data storage company EMC for $67 billion.

Quest provides software solutions to IT departments spanning from database management to data protection.

Clearlake, Quest and Francisco Partners did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

The WSJ report added that Clearlake was paying 10.9 times Quest's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the last 12 months.

(Reporting by Baranjot Kaur and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)