Cornerstone OnDemand Is Said to Hire Advisers to Run Review

(Bloomberg) -- Cornerstone OnDemand Inc. has hired financial advisers to work on a strategic review of the maker of cloud-computing software, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Cornerstone is working with Centerview Partners LLC and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The advisers are working in tandem to engage with potential suitors for the company while also providing activist defense advice against investor Praesidium Investment Management, which has agitated for a sale.

Shares rose as high as $37.81 and traded 7 percent up at 1:03 p.m. in New York, valuing the company at about $2.2 billion.

Representatives for Cornerstone and Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Centerview didn’t immediately return calls for comment.

Cornerstone has been mulling a sale since last year, people familiar with the matter said in December. Several of its peers, including Demandware LLC., LinkedIn Corp. and Cvent Inc., have been acquired in the past two years.

Praesidium first invested in Cornerstone in February 2016. The firm, which owns about 5 percent of Cornerstone’s stock, has previously invested in several software companies that were subsequently acquired, including Tibco Software Inc. and Informatica LLC.

Cornerstone, led by co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Adam Miller, makes cloud-based software for human-resources functions. The company reported an operating loss of $18.6 million for the second quarter.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alex Sherman in New York at asherman6@bloomberg.net, Kiel Porter in New York at kporter17@bloomberg.net.

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