Citrix is set to be acquired for $16.5bn by two private equity investors.
Vista Equity Partners and Elliott Investment Management announced the deal today, with plans to merger Citrix with Vista-owned TIBCO software to create a SaaS hybrid working company.
Bob Calderoni, Interim CEO at Citrix, said: “Over the past three decades, Citrix has established itself as the clear leader in secure hybrid work.
“Our market-leading platform provides secure and reliable access to all of the applications and information employees need to get work done, wherever it needs to get done. By combining with TIBCO, we will expand this platform and the outcomes our customers achieve.
“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.
“As a private company, we will have increased financial and strategic flexibility to invest in high-growth opportunities, such as DaaS, and accelerate its ongoing cloud transition”
Citrix specialises in virtualisation and the creation of digital workspaces. The combined business will have 400,000 customers, Citrix said, including 98 percent of Fortune 500 companies.
Calderoni said the announcement is the culmination of a five-month review that sought out potential buyers for Citrix.
The proposed price represents a 30 percent premium on Citrix’s share price before it rose on reports of a takeover.
Dan Streetman, CEO of TIBCO, said: “There has never been a better time to be in the business of connected intelligent analytics, and we’re thrilled to bring our industry-leading solutions to Citrix’s global customers.
“The workplace has changed forever, and companies everywhere will require real-time access to faster, smarter insights from the increasingly large volumes of data available to them, their employees, and their ecosystems.
“I couldn’t be more excited about our combined vision and look forward to a strong partnership.”
