Darktrace appoints former BT boss to board ahead of £4bn float
Darktrace has appointed former BT chief executive Sir Peter Bonfield to its board ahead of a potential stock market float that could value the cybersecurity giant at £4bn.
Bonfield has more than five decades of experience in the tech sector, including a six-year tenure as boss of the blue-chip telecoms giant.
He currently serves as chairman of Netherlands-based semiconductor firm NXP. He is also a director of Taiwan’s TSMC and is on the board of British chipmaker Imagination Technologies.
The appointment comes ahead of an eagerly-anticipated initial public offering for Darktrace, which is one of Britain’s biggest tech success stories.
The Cambridge-based cyber firm is hoping to raise as much as £4bn from what could be one of the biggest London stock market debuts this year.
But the plans suffered a setback last month after UBS resigned from its position as one of the lead investment banks on the IPO.
The shock move came against the backdrop of extradition proceedings against Mike Lynch, the billionaire founder of Autonomy who is facing fraud charges in the US relating to the company’s $11bn acquisition by Hewlett Packard.
Lynch was one of Darktrace’s first shareholders, though he stepped down from the board in 2018 and has no involvement in running the company.
Sky News last month reported that Darktrace has appointed former Capita executive Gordon Hurst as chairman to steer the company through its IPO.
It has also dropped one of its two chief executives as it rejigged its leadership team in preparation for the float. Poppy Gustafsson is now sole chief executive, while US-based Nicole Eagan has moved to head of strategy.
“Darktrace is a critical technology for thousands of organizations around the world as they contend with increasingly sophisticated cyber-attackers,” Bonfield said in a statement.
“I am excited to be working with Darktrace’s board of directors to advance the company’s important mission and success.”