The deal, which could be announced early this week, comes after Elliott and Vista jointly tapped the lending market to fund their cash bid for Citrix at $104 per share. Once Citrix privatizes, Vista plans to merge it with Tibco, another data analysis software company it owns.
The cash offer is lower than the closing price of Citrix stock, which was $105.55 on Friday. Nonetheless, the price represents a premium to its December low.
Citrix products allow enterprise employees to access their network remotely. However, Citrix failed to capitalize on the boom in remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic because it invested too much in its sales force and not enough in its channel partners, said Robert Calderoni, Acting CEO of Citrix, during the company’s latest quarterly earnings conference call.
Citrix, Elliott and Vista did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Elliott, the hedge fund that has amassed a stake in Citrix, has been looking for partners to buy the company since last October, sources say.
Although Citrix has struggled to transition to a subscription-based business, demand for its cloud services has soared during the pandemic as companies shift to remote working models.
Still, the company reported operating profit of $84.5 million in the third quarter, up from $128.3 million a year earlier, due to increased operating expenses.
Calderoni took over on an interim basis from David Henshall, who stepped down last month, having served as Citrix CEO since 2017. Elliott managing partner Jesse Cohn joined Citrix’s board of directors in 2015 and is retired last year.