Private equity, Enterprise, Content

Vista Equity Partners Acquiring Apptio

Vista Equity Partners is acquiring Apptio for $1.94 billion, the private equity firm and cloud-based IT management software provider have confirmed. At $38 per share, the purchase price represents a 53 percent premium to Friday’s closing price of $24.85, The Wall Street Journal notes.

Apptio's 2018 revenues are expected to be between $233.3 million and $234.3 million, the company said back in October 2018.

Additional bidders for Apptio may emerge. That's because the deal includes a 30-day “go-shop” period, which permits Apptio to actively pursue higher bids for the company.

Apptio Market Focus

Apptio's cloud-based applications allow IT departments to manage, plan and optimize their technology investments across on-premises and cloud.

Apptio's key offerings include Apptio For Cloud, a family of applications that helps IT leaders optimize the cost and utilization of their resources across public cloud, private cloud and on-premises infrastructure, the company says.

Vista Equity also owns Datto, which develops a range of IT management, data protection and business automation tools for MSPs. Apptio and Datto generally serve different markets, and ChannelE2E doesn't expect to see any particular synergies to emerge between them.

Vista Equity Acquires Apptio: Executive Perspectives

Apptio CEO Sunny Gupta
Apptio CEO Sunny Gupta

In a prepared statement about the buyout, Apptio CEO Sunny Gupta said:

“Since founding, 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. As we look to the next chapter of Apptio, we are thrilled to provide immediate liquidity to our shareholders at a significant premium to market prices and we remain deeply committed to our mission, product innovation, geographical expansion, and the work of the TBM Council. Vista’s investment and deep expertise in growing world-class SaaS businesses and the flexibility we will have as a private company will help us accelerate our growth while helping us maintain our commitment to creating wildly successful customers.”

Added Brian Sheth, co-founder and president of Vista:

“Today, with companies across sectors increasingly depending on technology to stay competitive, IT is becoming a critical component for every business on the planet, and Apptio has created the leading platform to help customers manage this new paradigm. We’re thrilled to partner with Sunny and the entire Apptio team on the next chapter in the company’s growth.”

ChannelE2E will be watching to see if additional Apptio bidders emerge.

Joe Panettieri

Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.