ADVERTISEMENT

Vista Equity Weighs Sale of Software Maker Tibco

Vista Equity Weighs Sale of Software Maker Tibco

(Bloomberg) -- Vista Equity Partners is considering a sale of Tibco Software Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

The private equity firm has held early stage talks with potential suitors, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Discussions are preliminary and Vista may decide to hold onto Tibco instead of pursuing a deal at this time, the people said.

Vista took Tibco private in 2014 in a deal valued at about $4.3 billion including debt. The company, based in Palo Alto, California, makes software that clients use to collect and analyze data in industries from banking to transportation. It currently has about $2.9 billion of debt, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

A representative for Vista declined to comment. Tibco didn’t respond to requests for comment.

The conversations come on the heels of KKR & Co.’s purchase of BMC Software Inc. from an investor group led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital. That deal, announced in May, valued BMC at about $8.3 billion including debt, a person familiar with the matter said at the time, well above the $6.9 billion the firms paid to take the company private five years earlier.

--With assistance from Kiel Porter.

To contact the reporters on this story: Melissa Mittelman in New York at mmittelman@bloomberg.net;Alex Barinka in San Francisco at abarinka2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Fournier at efournier5@bloomberg.net, Michael Hytha

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.