“Our acquisition of Spot is the next step in Flexera’s strategic plan to provide organizations with a full panorama of their technology spend and risk across the entire IT ecosystem,” said Flexera CEO Jim Ryan.
After investing millions in elevating its partner program and previously buying Snow Software, Flexera is now acquiring NetApp’s Spot FinOps business to take the company’s channel and cloud innovation to new heights.
By acquiring Spot by NetApp’s FinOps business, Flexera will boost its ability to serve customers and partners seeking to manage growing multi-cloud cost and FinOps needs across a broader range of services from hybrid cloud, SaaS applications and containers.
“A tsunami of artificial intelligence applications is exponentially increasing organizations’ consumption of cloud resources,” said Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Flexera in a statement. “Our acquisition of Spot is the next step in Flexera’s strategic plan to provide organizations with a full panorama of their technology spend and risk across the entire IT ecosystem.”
[Related: Flexera CEO: Major Investment In Global Partner Program ‘Will Make Our Technology More MSP-Friendly’]
“We hear from many organizations about the difficulty in answering basic questions like ‘What technology services do we use?’ and ‘Why are our cloud bills so high?’” Ryan (pictured) said. “We want to make it easy for anyone to find and analyze any data related to spend and risk for any kind of technology, anywhere it lives.”
NetApp’s Spot solutions provide continuous automation, optimization, and insights around an organization’s cloud infrastructure and applications.
Financial terms of the acquisition deal were not disclosed.
However, Bloomberg News reported the deal was worth $100 million, citing people familiar with the matter.
Flexera’s Partner Push In 2025
Itasca, Ill.-based Flexera said the acquisition will also create a richer ecosystem of FinOps Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to serve customers’ evolving needs and bring new DevOps users into its customer community.
In a recent interview with CRN, Flexera’s CEO said his company has invested “tens of millions of dollars” into boosting its global partner program.
“For 20 years the vast majority of our business was done directly with large enterprises,” Ryan told CRN in December.
“We certainly worked with partners, particularly MSPs, but the market dynamics were clear. Post-COVID, however, there’s been a noticeable shift,” he said. “Data shows that 40 [percent] to 50 percent of our customers now prefer to consume technology through an MSP model, which was accelerated by changes in the workforce and the growing demand for specialized skills.”
The newly enhanced partner program will integrate the strengths of Flexera and Snow Software—a hybrid IT asset management and FinOps vendor Flexera acquired in February—to offer partners a broader range of benefits including expanded support, accelerated MSP capabilities and expanded FinOps functionality.
Flexera is also introducing a partner services layer for its Flexera One platform, which enables partners to scale operations and create unique service offerings.
“We want our partners to see strong financial results and margin growth,” Ryan said. “Our goal is to create a win-win situation where partners can use our technology to drive value for their customers while also building their own business.”
Private equity firm Thoma Bravo bought a majority stake in Flexera in 2020.
NetApp Acquisition Follows Flexera’s Purchase Of Snow Software
CEO Ryan said the Snow Software acquisition in February brought together, “unrivaled domain expertise, unmatched technology data and intelligence, and the ability to deliver even more business outcomes” for customers.
“Flexera’s acquisition of Snow unlocks new opportunities for hybrid ITAM and FinOps,” he added.
Flexera and Snow’s integrated technology aims to help businesses navigate increasing costs and unquantified risks across cloud, SaaS, containers, on-premises, and AI technologies.
NetApp: Flexera Ideal For Spot ‘To Thrive And Scale’
NetApp, for its part, said the decision to sell its FinOps business reflects NetApp’s commitment to intelligent data infrastructure and long-term growth opportunities.
“After a thorough evaluation, it is clear that Flexera’s established expertise and global reach provide the ideal environment for the Spot business to thrive and scale,” said Haiyan Song, NetApp’s executive vice president of Intelligent Operations Services, in a statement.
The merger aligns with Flexera’s expanding FinOps scope, which now includes data centers, SaaS applications and public cloud, along with the modern FinOps framework that includes software licensing and sustainability.
“This move not only allows the Spot team and portfolio to unlock their full potential within Flexera’s ecosystem but also reinforces our dedication to driving value creation and achieving our ambitious growth objectives,” Song added.
The combination of Spot’s AI and machine learning machine learning-enabled technology and Flexera’s hybrid cloud expertise will offer a new FinOps solution that enhances financial accountability and efficiency in cloud operations, Flexera said.
