Citrix Joins Tibco in Newly Formed Cloud Software Group

Citrix is now part of the newly formed Cloud Software Group, a portfolio of six privately held software businesses. Private equity firms Vista Equity Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital on Friday completed their $16.5 billion acquisition of Citrix.

The deal, announced in January, brings the 33-year-old software company together with BI and application and data integration provider Tibco. The new Cloud Software Group divided Citrix into three business units: Citrix (virtual desktops and digital workspaces), NetScaler and ShareFile. The other three business units include Tibco (its core application and data integration group), Jaspersoft and Information Builders. The latter two are companies that Tibco had acquired.

Tom Krause

In a stunning move in July, Vista and Evergreen tapped Tom Krause to lead the combined software group as CEO. Krause was president of Broadcom Software and an architect of its pending $61 billion acquisition of VMware. Before Vista and Evergreen showed up, Krause was slated to lead the new VMware portfolio of companies.

The move has created leadership questions for VMware, though it solved one for the newly combined company. “The platform we have built will expand and deepen our relationships with our valued customers and partners, drive the future of mission-critical cloud software solutions and create long-term value for all our stakeholders,” Krause said in a statement.

Separate Business Groups

Effectively, Cloud Software Group is breaking apart companies that Citrix and Tibco previously acquired into separate business operating groups. Citrix acquired NetScaler, which now provides wide area network load balancers and SD-WAN software in 2005. In 2011, Citrix bought ShareFile, a file storage company that competes with Box and Dropbox, among others. Tibco acquired Jaspersoft in 2014. Later that year, Vista agreed to buy Tibco in a deal valued at $4.3 billion. Last year, Tibco acquired Information Builders for an undisclosed amount.

Wrike, the project management software provider that Citrix acquired last year, is not part of the Cloud Software Group. Vista and Evergreen, which has separated Wrike from Citrix, is reportedly looking to sell Wrike. Bloomberg reported that proceeds from Wrike, which Citrix acquired for $2.25 billion, would pare down debt incurred from the acquisition. Specifically, according to the report, it would help pay down $2.5 billion in preferred equity financing.

In the months leading up to the deal’s closing, many longtime Citrix employees left the company, many reportedly from layoffs. Sources close to the company expect that more layoffs will follow. One key departure on Friday was Citrix’s longtime head of technology Christian Reilly. “As the company enters a new era, the opportunities remain, and I am sure that the brilliant folks at Citrix will continue to deliver on our market leading position,” Reilly said on LinkedIn.

Business Unit Leaders

Leading the new business groups include Sridhar Mullapudi, general manager of Citrix, a 22-year veteran who is chief product officer. Abhilash Verma, who joined Citrix 18 years ago, is the general manager of NetScaler. Tibco’s general manager is COO Matt Quinn. Tibco senior VP of engineering Ali Ahmed was named general manager, enterprise applications for Jaspersoft and Information Builders.

Hector Lima, a 20-year Citrix veteran and most recently executive VP and chief customer officer is now EVP for Cloud Software Group’s field and channel sales. At Citrix, Lima was also overseeing its channel sales organization following the departure of channel chief Mark Palomba. Palomba only held that role for roughly seven months.

When Citrix executive VP of business strategy Tim Minahan announced the deal back in January, he said combining with Tibco would be “a game changer” in the desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) market. Minahan suggested Citrix could integrate Tibco’s “connected intelligence” technology with its digital workspace platform.

The Cloud Software Group isn’t projecting such grandiose plans. According to the FAQ on the Cloud Software Group website: “Citrix and TIBCO will operate as separate business units and continue to innovate in their core areas, including Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS), Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), application delivery, collaboration, security, networking, integration, data management and analytics solutions. You should continue to engage with the support, success, account, and related teams with whom you are currently working.”