Activist Jana Partners increases its stake in Rapid7 software provider BNN Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — Jana Partners increased its stake in Rapid7 Inc., continuing to urge the cybersecurity software provider to pursue a sale.

On Friday, the activist investor disclosed that he holds a 13% economic voting interest in the outstanding shares of Boston-based Rapid7. Jan’s submission was made jointly with private investors Chad Kinzelberg, Michael Joseph Burns and Robert Bradshaw Henske.

Rapid7’s shares have fallen nearly 19% on the New York Stock Exchange over the past 12 months, giving the company a market value of about $2.3 billion. Earlier this year, Jana disclosed a 4.3% position in Rapid7.

In June, activist managing partner Scott Ostfeld said Rapid7 should consider a sale to maximize shareholder value. Ostfeld said the company was underperforming indexes and other competitors and its management was trying to do too much at once.

According to Friday’s filing, Jana intends to engage in constructive discussions with Rapid7’s management team to address concerns regarding compensation, management and board composition, as well as to assess the value of the company in any sale.

If the situation develops into a proxy battle, Jana could nominate Kinzelberg, Burns and Henske for seats on Rapid7’s board, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information.

A spokesman for John declined to comment beyond the filing. A representative for Rapid7 did not immediately provide comment.

Based in New York, Jana has had success in recent campaigns with telecommunications group Frontier Communications Parent Inc., a Trimble Inc. industrial technology company and pet food supplier Freshpet Inc. She called for a potential sale of Frontier that was agreed to this month by Verizon Communications Inc.

Kinzelberg was senior vice president of corporate and business development at Palo Alto Networks Inc. Burns is the former CFO of companies including Imperva Inc. and Gigamon Inc. Henske was Intuit Inc.’s chief financial officer. and Synopsys Inc.