Vista Equity Partners in bid for Citrix: sources

People familiar with the matter said that a joint bid for the U.S. cloud computing company has been proposed by Vista Equity Partners, the hedge fund that has a stake in Citrix Systems Inc.

The bid was first reported by Bloomberg News on Monday.

A bid for Citrix, which has a market value of more than $10 billion, would come after its shares dropped to their lowest level since 2018.

The company's products allow employees of companies to access their network remotely. Citrix interim chief executive Robert Calderoni told analysts last month that the company didn't capitalize on the rise of virtual working during the COVID-19 epidemic because it spent too much on its salesforce and too little on its distribution partners.

The sources said that Elliott's private equity arm is working with Vista on a bid for Citrix. The deal could involve one of Vista's portfolio companies, Tibco, which provides data analytics software. The price that is being discussed could not be learned.

The sources cautioned that no deal is certain and that the talks are in an early stage. They requested anonymity because the matter was confidential.

Citrix and Vista didn't respond immediately to a request for comment. Elliott didn't want to say anything.

Demand for Citrix's cloud services went up during the epidemic as companies switched to remote working models, as Citrix struggled to transition to a subscription-based business model.

The company reported operating income of $84.5 million in the third quarter, a decrease from $128.3 million a year ago, as higher operational expenses weighed on the company's operating income. Calderoni expects to announce a margin improvement program in the fourth quarter.

Calderoni took over on an interim basis from David Henshall, who stepped down last month, having served as Citrix CEO since 2017. Jesse Cohn, Elliott's managing partner, joined the Citrix board of directors in 2015 and stepped down last year.