Francisco Partners announced this week they’re taking JAMF private for $2.2 billion at $13.05 per share. The headlines trumpet a “50% premium” to recent trading prices. The press releases talk about “strategic flexibility” and “accelerating growth.”
But here’s what the press releases won’t tell you: This is a cautionary tale about the brutal arithmetic of B2B software, and why growing from good to great is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do.
The Numbers That Tell the Real Story
Let me walk you through what actually happened here, because the deal structure reveals everything you need to know about building a sustainable SaaS business.
JAMF IPO’d in July 2020 at $26 per share, 18 years after founding in 2002. The stock popped to $51 on day one before closing at $39.20, giving the company a market cap of about $4.6 billion. At IPO, the company was targeting a valuation between $2.44 billion and $2.68 billion based on their offering range, but got a first-day pop that took them to $4.6 billion.
Fast forward five years. Francisco Partners is paying $2.2 billion.
Let that sink in. The company is being acquired for less than half its day-one IPO valuation. The transaction values JAMF at just half of what the company was worth when it first went public 63 months ago.
And that “50% premium”? That’s measured against JAMF’s 90-day volume weighted average closing share price prior to September 11, 2025. The stock had gotten crushed. The company’s stock is down more than 83% from a peak trading price of $47.97 per share in November 2021.
What About the Revenue Multiple? 3.1x ARR
Here’s where it gets even more interesting from a valuation perspective.
At IPO in Q1 2020, JAMF had $224.9 million in ARR and did $60.4 million in quarterly revenue. At the IPO midpoint price of $18, the enterprise value was approximately $2.3 billion. That’s roughly 10x ARR at IPO.
Now? JAMF did $176.5 million in Q2 2025 revenue (up 15% YoY) with $710 million in ARR. Trailing twelve-month revenue is $666 million.
The Francisco acquisition at $2.2 billion? That’s about 3.1x its $710m+ ARR. Or roughly 3.3x TTM revenue.
Think about that trajectory:
- IPO (2020): ~10x ARR multiple
- Peak (Nov 2021): Stock hit $48, implying ~15-16x ARR at that time
- Acquisition (Oct 2025): 3.1x ARR multiple
The company more than tripled its ARR from $225M to $710M over five years. Revenue grew from $204M in 2019 to $666M TTM. That’s a 27% CAGR in revenue over the period.
And yet the absolute dollar valuation went down.
The Growth Rate Reality Check
Here’s the brutal part: the growth rate deceleration.
In 2019, JAMF grew revenue 39% YoY. In Q1 2020, they grew 37%. At IPO, they were a classic high-growth SaaS story.
What about now?
For full year 2024, revenue was $627.4 million with 11.92% growth. Q2 2025 showed 15% YoY growth. For full year 2025, JAMF projects revenue of $691-695 million, indicating 10-11% growth.
They went from 35-40% growth at IPO to 10-15% growth today. And they’re still losing money on a GAAP basis. In 2024, losses were -$68.46 million.
The Rule of 40? At IPO in Q1 2020, JAMF’s Rule of 40 calculation was 36% – they needed improvement even then. As of recent measurements, JAMF’s rule of 40 is -1% (11% growth minus 12% GAAP operating margin loss).
The Operating Leverage Problem
What happened here? How does a company grow revenue 3x but see its valuation cut in half?
Simple: They never figured out operating leverage.
The company executed two rounds of layoffs in two years – 6% of staff in January 2024 (about 166 people) and 6.4% in July 2025 (another 166 people). From a headcount perspective, JAMF’s workforce fell from 2,767 people as of Dec 31, 2023 to 2,595 people as of Dec 31, 2024.
You don’t lay off 12% of your company over 18 months if your unit economics are working.
In Q2 2025, JAMF achieved Non-GAAP Operating Income of $33.5 million (19% margin) and Adjusted EBITDA of $35.3 million (20% margin). Those are respectable non-GAAP numbers. But the GAAP operating loss for Q2 2025 was $15 million.
The gap between GAAP and non-GAAP tells you everything. They’re adjusting out $48M per quarter in stock comp, amortization, and other costs to get to profitability. That’s real dilution. That’s real cash (for the stock comp portion).
The Market They’re Fighting In
To be fair to JAMF, they’re in a brutally competitive market. They face intensifying competition from cross-platform providers such as Microsoft Intune, VMware Workspace ONE, and Cisco Meraki.
JAMF has carved out a solid position as the Apple-focused device management platform. The company supports everything from MacBooks and iPads to iPhones across corporate and educational networks. JAMF serves more than 75,000 customers worldwide.
But being the best Apple MDM in the world is… a niche. And when you’re niche, you need to be dramatically better or dramatically cheaper. JAMF is better, but they’re fighting Microsoft, which bundles Intune with everything else they sell.
The bright spot? Security ARR hit $203 million, up 40% YoY, and now represents 29% of total ARR. That’s a real product expansion story. But it’s not enough to offset the core business deceleration.
What This Means for Founders
If you’re building a B2B SaaS company, here are the lessons from JAMF’s journey:
1. Growth Rate is Everything at Scale
JAMF’s revenue went up 3x. But their growth rate got cut in half – from 35-40% to 10-15%. In SaaS, the market doesn’t care about absolute revenue growth. They care about growth rate.
A company growing $100M at 40% is worth more than a company growing $300M at 12%. The math is brutal but real.
2. The 3x-5x Revenue Multiple is the New Normal If You Aren’t A Break-Out Leader
Forget about 10x-15x revenue multiples unless you’re growing 40%+ and profitable. The median public SaaS company valuation multiple as of early 2025 stands at 7.0x current run-rate revenue. For private B2B SaaS companies, bootstrapped companies yield a predicted valuation multiple of 4.8x while equity-backed companies yield 5.3x.
JAMF got acquired at 3.1x ARR. That’s below the median for private SaaS, and they’re a public company with $710M in ARR. Why? Because 11% growth plus negative GAAP profits equals a compressed multiple.
3. Operating Leverage is Not Optional
You can’t grow forever at -20% GAAP operating margins. Eventually, investors want to see the path to real, sustained profitability. Not “adjusted EBITDA profitable” – actually profitable.
JAMF has been public for 5 years and they’re still figuring this out. That’s why they’re going private.
4. Niche Can Be Amazing… Until It’s Not
Being the #1 Apple MDM in the world is an incredible position. But when your TAM is defined by Apple’s enterprise penetration, and you’re competing against Microsoft’s bundling strategy, you need to expand. Fast.
JAMF acquired Identity Automation in April 2025 and is pushing into security and identity management. But those are also crowded markets. The easy growth is over. What comes next is harder.
5. The IPO is Not the Finish Line
This is the big one. JAMF raised $468 million at IPO. Vista Equity Partners acquired majority control in 2017 for $733.8 million, and Vista’s stake was worth more than $3.6 billion based on JAMF’s closing price on IPO day.
Vista made money. The IPO investors? Many of them are underwater. Vista Equity Partners currently owns approximately 34.0% of JAMF’s outstanding shares and will conclude its investment upon close of the Francisco deal.
The IPO is just the beginning of a much longer journey. If you can’t maintain growth and achieve operating leverage, the market will re-rate you. Harshly.
The Long Road Ahead
Francisco Partners’ $2.2 billion take-private reflects renewed private-equity confidence in predictable, subscription-based enterprise-software revenues amid volatile public valuations.
For Francisco, this is a bet they can do what JAMF couldn’t as a public company: improve margins, expand the platform, and grow efficiently. The private-equity firm’s move offers a chance to create value by restructuring operations outside the scrutiny of quarterly earnings, while pursuing selective mergers and deeper integration with endpoint-security solutions.
For JAMF’s employees and customers, going private might actually be the right move. Private firms don’t face the same level of scrutiny and pressure for short-term results as publicly traded firms, and it helps insulate the company from stock market volatility.
But for founders and investors in B2B SaaS, JAMF’s story is a reminder: This business is hard. Really hard.
Growing from $200M to $700M+ ARR takes enormous effort. But if you can’t maintain growth rates, achieve operating leverage, and expand your TAM, you might find yourself worth less at $700M than you were at $200M.
That’s the math. That’s the reality. And that’s why B2B software, as amazing as it is, remains one of the longest and hardest roads in business.
The question every founder needs to answer: How will you avoid JAMF’s fate?
Because the IPO isn’t the finish line. It’s barely the starting gun.
