Citrix to privatise and merge with Tibco following £12.1bn acquisition

US cloud services provider Citrix has been acquired for $16.5 billion (£12.1bn) and will be privatised and merged with data analysis software developer Tibco Software.

The buyout comes from Elliot Investment Management and Vista Equity Partners, the latter of which has owned Tibco since 2014.

Following weeks of reports of negotiations, the acquisition deal has been approved by Citrix’s board of directors and is expected to close by mid-2022.

Elliot Management, which owns 12 percent of Citrix shares, will vote in favour of the deal after being a key advocate pushing for the merger. Shareholders will receive $104 (£77) per share.

Citrix provides more than 400,000 clients and 98% of the Fortune 500 with cloud software as a service (SaaS), networking, and servers.

Tibco Software sells data management, integration, and analysis software from its Palo Alto headquarters.

Jed Ayres, CEO of edge operating system developer IGEL, believes that if the two companies can create a platform that delivers on data with the security demanded by the hybrid cloud marketplace they will be highly successful.

“Both of these companies have a storied history. These are two companies that are in every large enterprise customer in the world. They have an opportunity now as a private company to build a very cohesive platform that connects people to data and applications with the right analytics and security,” Ayres said.

“The big question is how well and how quickly they can integrate their offerings. Regardless, going private will help Citrix continue their transition to the cloud without the pressure of being a publicly held company.”

Bob Calderoni, chairman of the Citrix board of directors and interim president and CEO, said: “Today’s announcement is the culmination of a strategic review process conducted over five months, including extensive outreach to both potential financial and strategic buyers.

“By combining 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.” Cloud Computing