ADT Agrees to $7.6 Billion Cash Buyout by Kushner-Backed Thrive
Thrive Holdings will pay $10 a share in cash for ADT, valuing the home-security company at $15.3 billion including debt. ADT shares jumped about 34%.
ADT Inc., the largest home-security monitoring company in the United States, agreed on Thursday, Oct. 29, to be taken private by Thrive Holdings, a holding company spun out of the venture capital firm Thrive Capital, which is run by investor Josh Kushner. Thrive will pay $10 a share in cash. ADT said in a statement that the deal puts the company’s equity value at about $7.6 billion and its enterprise value, which includes debt, at $15.3 billion. ADT shares rose about 34% after the announcement and reached their highest level since December 2022, Investing.com reported.
What happened
According to ADT’s announcement, which it also filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the $10 price is 45.6% above the stock’s unaffected closing price of $6.87 on Oct. 27 and 52.1% above its 30-day volume-weighted average price up to that date. The shares had already risen on Wednesday, and The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the agreement, put the premium at 35% over Wednesday’s close of $7.41.
ADT’s board of directors approved the agreement unanimously. The deal needs approval from ADT shareholders and U.S. antitrust regulators. The companies expect it to close in the first quarter of 2027. After that, ADT will become a privately held company and its stock will stop trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management, the private equity and credit firm, are providing all of the financing, and the deal does not depend on Thrive raising money elsewhere, ADT said. The agreement also includes a 30-day “go-shop” period, which allows ADT to seek competing offers. It runs until 11:59 p.m. New York time on Nov. 28, and some bidders who come forward during that time could get 10 more days. ADT can end the agreement to accept a better offer, subject to the contract’s terms.
Shortly after the announcement, a quote on Yahoo Finance showed the stock at $9.93, just below the offer price. The narrow gap suggests investors are not expecting a higher bid to emerge.
Who is buying ADT
Thrive Holdings describes itself as a permanent capital holding company, meaning it plans to own businesses for the long term rather than sell them after a few years, as many private equity firms do. It owns and runs more than 75 businesses in accounting, IT services and the built environment, according to the announcement. SecurityInfoWatch, a security industry publication, reported that the company focuses on bringing artificial intelligence into traditionally analog industries. Once the deal closes, ADT will become the base of Thrive’s smart home security business.
Jim DeVries, ADT’s chairman, president and chief executive, said the deal “recognizes the value built by our more than 12,000 employees.” Kareem Zaki, a partner at Thrive Holdings, said the firm intends to build on that foundation “by strengthening ADT’s technology and product capabilities.” ADT said it will keep operating independently until the deal closes and that its data and privacy policies will not change.
Background
The sale would mark the second time ADT has been taken private in a decade. In 2016, Apollo combined ADT with Protection 1, another security company it owned, in an all-cash deal worth about $6.9 billion, SecurityInfoWatch reported. Apollo took ADT public again in January 2018 at $14 a share. The stock has traded well below that level for most of the time since. Apollo sold the last of its stake in May 2026, when the shares were around $7, according to Investing.com.
ADT has more than 6 million customers, according to SecurityInfoWatch. Its other major investors include:
- State Farm, the insurer, which invested in 2022 and became ADT’s largest shareholder after Apollo’s exit, SecurityInfoWatch reported;
- Google, which took a stake of about 6% in 2020, and whose partnership with ADT produced a do-it-yourself system that pairs Google Nest devices with ADT monitoring.
What comes next
ADT is scheduled to report third-quarter results before the market opens on Nov. 3. Because of the pending deal, the company said it will not take questions on that call. It also said it does not plan to disclose developments during the go-shop period unless it decides disclosure is appropriate or required. Before the deal can close, ADT shareholders will vote on it and U.S. antitrust regulators must review it.
