Citrix acquired by private equity, will be paired with Tibco in $16.5bn deal

Go-private deal with gang it previously bought Wrike from

Citrix is to be acquired by Vista Equity Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital in a deal worth $16.5bn. The move will see Citrix taken into private ownership and combined with Tibco, another firm already in Vista's portfolio.

Under the terms of the agreement announced today, Citrix shareholders will receive $104 per share, a price which represents a premium of 24 per cent over the over the closing price on December 20, the last trading day before rumours began to leak regarding a potential takeover.

Citrix also put out its financial results for the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2021 today, reporting revenue of $851m compared to $810m for the same quarter in 2020, representing 5 per cent growth.

Citrix is one of the veterans of the IT industry, pioneering remote desktop access for applications hosted on Windows server in the 1990s, before expanding into other areas of the application delivery stack.

Vista and Evergreen have stated their intention to combine Citrix with Tibco Software, a business intelligence and enterprise data management firm, one of Vista's portfolio companies. However, Citrix will continue to operate under the Citrix name and brand.

Post-acquisition, the pair will be positioned to provide "complete, secure and optimised infrastructure for enterprise application and desktop delivery and data management to advance hybrid cloud IT strategies and meet the needs of the modern enterprise," according to a statement by the companies.

The interim CEO for Citrix Bob Calderoni claimed that as a private company, it will have increased financial and strategic flexibility to invest in high-growth opportunities such as desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) and accelerate its ongoing cloud transition.

"Together with Tibco, we will be able to operate with greater scale and provide a larger customer base with a broader range of solutions to accelerate their digital transformations and enable them to deliver the future of hybrid work," he said.

Calderoni has been interim CEO since October last year, when the previous incumbent David Henshall suddenly stepped aside from the role.

Tibco CEO Dan Streetman said that: "There has never been a better time to be in the business of connected intelligent analytics," and added that his firm was "thrilled to bring our industry-leading solutions to Citrix’s global customers."

Detailing the reasons for the acquisition, Vista managing director John Stalder explained that Citrix and Tibco provided mission-critical software and services to many the world's most successful businesses, and he saw value in combining their respective portfolios.

This time last year, Citrix bought Wrike, a project management and team-based collaboration tool, for $2.25bn. Vista was the seller in that deal.

"Both businesses have now completed transitions to approximately 90 percent recurring revenue, poising the go-forward combined business to drive future growth," Stalder purred.

The transaction has apparently been unanimously approved by members of the Citrix board of directors, and is expected to close mid-year. ®