Photographer: Jason Alden / Bloomberg
Photographer: Jason Alden / Bloomberg
Citrix Systems Inc. is in advanced talks to buy the company with labor management platforms Wrike Inc. for over $ 2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
A business for Wrike, owned by the technology-focused procurement firm Equity Vista partners could be contacted immediately this week, people said, asking not to be identified because the information was private. It would be the biggest acquisition so far for Citrix.
The agreement is not finalized, and talks could still fall apart.
Citrix and Wrike representatives did not respond to requests for comment. A representative for Vista declined to comment.
An agreement in excess of $ 2 billion would likely produce a substantial return on Vista investment. It would also be the largest acquisition to date for Citrix, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Vista acquired a majority stake in San Jose, California-based Wrike in 2018. The deal valued the company at $ 800 million, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.
Citrix already sells some cloud and home products, but the acquisition will bring it to the area of collaboration software, which helps teams work better together and complete projects.
Workplace collaboration software, such as Wrike’s, has grown in popularity as companies have increasingly relied on remote work since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Wrike’s competitors include Asana Inc., Atlello Inc. Trello Inc. and Slack Technologies Inc., which has agreed to be acquired by Salesforce.com Inc. Wrike was founded by Andrew Filev in 2006 and is also supported by Bain Capital Ventures and Scale Venture Partners.
Citrix shares in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, have gained 15% in the last year, giving the company a market value of about $ 16 billion.
Citrix had previously been the subject of a campaign Elliott Management Corp., which first unveiled its stake in Citrix in 2015. The investor, who has since left, argued at a time when the company was suffering from problems of execution and poor management and needed to simplify its business after a wrong purchase. Since then, Citrix has dropped the GoTo business, replaced two CEOs, revitalized revenue growth and expanded margins.
The Wrike investment was made by the Vista III Foundation, which focuses on mid-market software, data and technology companies. The fund raised $ 2.3 billion of the $ 2.75 billion it raised, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
– With the assistance of Katie Roof