Remote monitoring and management startup Continuum Managed Services LLC has been acquired for an undisclosed price by Thoma Bravo LLC, a private equity investment firm with a taste for investing in enterprise and security startups.

Founded in 2011, Continuum offers a cloud-based platform that allows managed service providers to backup, monitor, troubleshoot and maintain information technology environments. The technology is complemented by a network operations center and help desk to allow MSPs to remotely administer, backup and secure their clients’ IT environments from a single screen.

Continuum claims to work with one million endpoints for 5,800 partners that include MSPs providing services to more than 60,000 small to medium-sized businesses. The Boston-based company employs more than 1,400 people in offices worldwide.

For Thoma Bravo, the deal complements its existing investments, which include a stake in security firm McAfee LLC. “The company has a smart and proven business model which solves a well-understood skills gap in the MSP market,” Thoma Bravo Vice President AJ Jangalapalli said in a statement. “With its strong growth and high customer retention, Continuum is a great fit.”

Thoma Bravo’s ownership of Continuum is likely to be fairly short-lived, however. The company, like most private-equity firms, acquires companies like this as part of a strategy to overhaul the acquisition target and then sell it between two to five years later at a considerable profit.

Thoma Bravo has a long track record of doing well out of its acquisitions. It sold IT management software provider LANDesk Software Inc. in March for $1.1 billion. Its current ownership portfolio includes data visualization giant Qlik Inc., which it acquired for $3 billion in June 2016 along with work and resource management company Planview Inc.

Image: Continuum