Progress to buy Cloud Software unit ShareFile for $875 million

(Reuters) - Progress Software said on Monday it would buy Cloud Software Group's unit ShareFile for about $875 million, as the AI-powered software firm looks to boost its enterprise product portfolio.

The transaction is expected to close within Progress' fiscal year ending Nov. 30.

ShareFile, launched in 2005 by Jesse Lipson, uses advanced encryption methods when sending and storing files. The unit is expected to contribute $240 million to Progress' annual revenue, driven by its customer base of more than 86,000.

Burlington, Massachusetts-based Progress has a market value of about $2.5 billion. Its products are used by customers to automate business processes, transfer data, and fix network problems by monitoring IT infrastructure.

Progress said it would also suspend its quarterly dividend as of the closing of the ShareFile acquisition, as it plans to redirect capital toward the repayment of debt to increase liquidity for future deals and for share repurchases.

Progress on Monday also said it expects revenue and adjusted earnings per share for its fiscal third quarter to be within or above the high end of the forecast it provided on June 25.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)