Elliot-Visa Nears $13B Deal To Acquire Citrix

Elliott Management Corp and Vista Equity Partners are close to buying Citrix Systems Inc. in a deal that values the US cloud computing company at about $13 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter, Krystal Hu reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Citrix Systems Inc.

The deal, which could be announced as soon as early this week, came after Elliott and Vista jointly tapped the loan market to fund their cash bid for Citrix at $104 per share. Once taking Citrix private, Vista plans to merge it with Tibco, another data analytics software firm it owns.

The cash bid comes lower than where Citrix stock closed at $105.55 on Friday. Still, the price represents a premium to its lows in December. Citrix's products allow employees of companies to access their network remotely.

However, it failed to capitalize on the rise of remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic because it spent too much on its salesforce and too little on its distribution partners, Citrix interim Chief Executive Robert Calderoni said on the company's most recent quarterly earnings call.

Elliott, the hedge fund that has amassed a stake in Citrix, has been looking for partners to take the company private since last October, sources said.

While Citrix has struggled to transition to a subscription-based business, demand for its cloud services soared during the pandemic as companies shifted to remote working models.

Still, the company reported operating income of $84.5 million in the third quarter, down from $128.3 million a year ago, as higher operational expenses weighed.

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