Private Equity Firms Buys Cloud Vendor Apptio
Hybrid IT specialist Apptio, which went public in 2016, is being taken private by Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm that has been snapping up enterprise IT vendors.
Apptio (NASDAQ: APTI) recently reported stronger-than-expected quarterly revenues. In October, Apptio completed its acquisition of FittedCloud, a provider of cloud optimization software based on machine learning. The deal expanded Apptio’s public cloud analytics portfolio.
The IT vendor based in Bellevue, Wash., said Sunday (Nov. 11) Vista Equity Partners would acquire all outstanding shares of Apptio common stock in a cash deal values at $1.94 billion. The purchase price represents a 53 percent premium based on the closing price of Apptio stock on Nov. 9.
The sale price illustrates the uptick in cloud acquisitions in recent months, particularly companies with strong open-source ties. For example, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced in late October it would acquire open-source software leader Red Hat(NYSE: RHT) for a whopping $34 billion.
Sunny Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Apptio, said the deal to take his company private would provide more flexibility in expanding its cloud software business. “Our focus has been on building the next great cloud software platform by dedicating ourselves to helping companies of all sizes and industries manage, plan, and optimize technology investments across their hybrid IT environments,” Gupta added.
Apptio shareholders, who would receive $38 in cash per share, must still approve the acquisition. The company expects the transaction to close during the first quarter of 2019.
The Apptio acquisition would be seventh this year by Vista Equity Partners, according to the web site Crunchbase.com. Most are focused on enterprise technology startups.
