The New York Stock Exchange firm is being captured by private equity companies Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and KKR in an all cash transaction expected to close in the second half.
Entities related to Icahn Group, collectively holding around 18% of the company, have backed the deal, which represents a 24% premium on the 28 May closing share price.
The agreement includes a 30-day “go-shop” period expiring on 1 July 2021, which allows the board and its advisors to actively initiate, solicit and consider alternative acquisition proposals from third parties, with an additional ten days to negotiate a definitive agreement with qualifying parties.
As Cloudera is in the market sweet spot of cloud data analytics it would be no surprise to see someone else come in with a bid, including a major cloud service provider with deep pockets of spare cash - which an activist investor like Icahn Group will be encouraging.
News of the takeover came as the firm posted its first quarter results for the period ending 30 April - sales were up 7% annually to $224.3 million. Subscription revenue was $200.7 million - an increase of 7% also - and annualised recurring revenue grew 12% year-over-year.
“This transaction provides substantial and certain value to our shareholders while also accelerating Cloudera’s long-term path to hybrid cloud leadership for analytics that span the complete data lifecycle - from the edge to AI,” said Rob Bearden, CEO of Cloudera.
“We believe that as a private company, with the expertise and support of experienced investors such as CD&R and KKR, Cloudera will have the resources and flexibility to drive product-led growth and expand our addressable market opportunity.”
Jeff Hawn, CD&R operating partner, will serve as chairman of the company on close of the transaction. “The company has made significant progress establishing the Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) as a leader in hybrid and multi-cloud analytics, and we believe that our experience and capabilities can offer valuable support to accelerate expansion into new products and markets,” said Hawn.
