Citrix to buy Wrike for $2.25 billion from private equity firm Vista Equity Partners

Citrix said Tuesday that it has signed a deal to acquire Wrike, makers of collaborative work management software, for $2.25 billion in cash. Citrix also reported its fourth quarter and fiscal 2020 financial results, which beat expectations.

San Jose-based Wrike is a Vista Equity Partners portfolio company with roughly 1,000 employees and approximately 18,000 customers globally.

Citrix said buying Wrike will bolster Workspace, its digital work platform, and accelerate its business model transition to the cloud. Citrix is in the middle of a transition to more of a subscription-based revenue model, and Citrix Workspace now generates the majority of that revenue.

Citrix, which is among the bevy of tech vendors benefiting from the work-from-home wave, said the combination with Wrike will open “new revenue opportunities both within existing installed customer bases and new lines of business buying centers, including marketing, professional services, and HR.” The companies will serve a combined 400,000 customers across 140 countries, Citrix said.

In prepared remarks, Citrix CEO David Henshall said “success will go to those companies that can support flexible and hybrid work models and provide a consistent, secure and efficient experience”.

“Together, Citrix and Wrike will deliver the solutions needed to power a cloud-delivered digital workspace experience that enables teams to securely access the resources and tools they need to collaborate and get work done in the most efficient and effective way possible across any channel, device or location,” Henshall said.

As for earnings, Citrix reported Q4 non-GAAP earnings of $1.46 per share on revenue of $810 million. Wall Street was expecting Q4 earnings of $1.33 per share and revenue of $781 million. 

Elsewhere on the balance sheet, Citrix said Q4 subscription ARR was $1.2 billion, up 62% year over year. Meanwhile, the company said SaaS ARR came to $725 million, up 39% from a year ago. Workspace revenue in Q4 was $591 million, roughly 73% of the quarter’s revenue.

Ctirix said Wrike is expected to have approximately 30% stand-alone growth to between $180 million and $190 million in unaudited SaaS ARR in 2021, with the opportunity to accelerate growth over time as part of Citrix.

For the first quarter of 2021, Citrix is projecting revenue of $785 million to $795 million with non-GAAP earnings of $1.40 a share to $1.45 a share. That guidance is mostly in line with Wall Street estimates. 

Source: ZDNet

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