Pros Holdings (‘PRO’), the software solutions provider that has its head office near Greenway Plaza, has agreed to be acquired by Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm, for $1.4 billion in cash.

PRO has revenues of $343 million. It specializes in revenue management and price optimization software such as dynamic pricing for airlines. Mariette and Ron Woestemeyer founded the company in 1985. They had both worked at Texas International Airlines (later acquired by Continental Airlines). They started by creating a new algorithm to help Southwest Airlines overcome a severe overbooking problem.

The company went public in 2007 and started transitioning to a cloud-based subscription billing model in 2015. Although revenues have increased from $168 million to $343 million in that time, they have lost money every year at an EBITDA level due to heavy R &D investment and share-based compensation.  Losses have been reducing in the past few years. For 2025, the company was forecasting adjusted EBITDA of $42 million, which excludes $50 million in stock compensation.

The company is being sold for $23.25 per share. This is about the same price that it was in 2015 when it started the transformation. It was reported in Sept 2023 that the company was in discussions with potential acquirers. Presumably, no deal was done at that time because prospective buyers weren’t willing to offer a high enough price because of the losses.

Thoma Bravo is based in Chicago and specializes in making investments in software and technology solutions. In the past month, it has also agreed to buy two other public companies,  Dayforce ($12.3 billion) and Verint ($2 billion).

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025.

SEC filing – PROS to be acquired by Thoma Bravo