© Reuters. The Citrix logo. Courtesy Citrix Systems
By Chavi Mehta
(Reuters) -Software company Citrix Systems (NASDAQ:) said on Monday it would be taken private for $16.5 billion including debt by affiliates of Elliott Management and Vista Equity Partners, which are seeking to tap the pandemic-driven boom in cloud computing.
The company said its shareholders would get $104 per share, implying an equity value of nearly $13 billion and confirming a Reuters report from Sunday about the joint bid.
That represents a 24.3% premium to Citrix’s close on Dec. 20, when talks of a deal were first reported, but is lower than its Friday close.
Shares of Citrix were down 3.8% at $101.53 in early Monday trading.
“Today’s announcement is the culmination of a strategic review process conducted over five months,” interim Chief Executive Officer Bob Calderoni said in a statement.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Citrix started focusing more on cloud computing only in recent years, providing remote work solutions and networking software for businesses.
Elliott’s Jesse Cohn joined the company’s board in 2015, when the hedge fund urged Citrix to spin off some units and buy back shares, before stepping down in 2020.
However, Citrix’s failure to capitalize on the rise of virtual working during the COVID-19 pandemic lead to its stock plunging 23% last year.
“In the middle of a significant business model transformation, going private is often the best opportunity to have the runway to grow,” said Daniel Newman, an analyst at Futurum Research.
Private equity players have also recently increased their stakes in the high-growth cloud computing space.
Newman likened Citrix’s deal to KKR & Co (NYSE:) and Clayton Dubilier & Rice taking Cloudera (NYSE:) private for $4.7 billion last year, as the firm struggled to make money and grow.
Citrix said its buyers include Elliott affiliate Evergreen Coast Capital and other affiliates of Vista Equity.
The deal, expected to be completed by mid-2022, will combine Citrix with Vista’s data analytics firm TIBCO Software and serve 400,000 customers, with 100 million users in 100 countries.
Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.
Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Business News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsAzi is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
