Rivals Cloudera, Hortonworks Announce Merger

Cloudera and Hortonworks said Wednesday that they are merging. The value of the combined companies is estimated at $5.2 billion.  

Hortonworks delivers open source global data-management platforms and services, while Cloudera delivers a modern platform for machine learning and analytics optimized for the cloud. Together, the vendors contend they’ll create a leading next-generation data platform provider, spanning multicloud, on-premises and the edge. 

Cloudera’s Tom Reilly

“Our businesses are highly complementary and strategic,” said Tom Reilly, CEO at Cloudera. “By bringing together Hortonworks’ investments in end-to-end data management with Cloudera’s investments in data warehousing and machine learning, we will deliver the industry’s first enterprise data cloud from the Edge to AI.”

 The two vendors’ products are built on open source, Hadoop distributions. Some benefits of the merger: 

Hortonworks CEO Rob Bearden noted that together the companies will have a broader set of offerings.

Hortonworks’ Rob Bearden

“Together, we are well positioned to continue growing and competing in the streaming and IoT, data management, data warehousing, machine learning/AI and hybrid cloud markets,” he said. 

The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2019, subject to stockholder approval from the two companies, U.S. antitrust clearance and other customary closing conditions. 

When the merger is complete, the new entity’s leadership will be as follows: Cloudera’s Reilly as CEO; Hortonworks COO Scott Davidson will serve as COO; Hortonworks’ chief product officer (CPO), Arun Murthy, will serve as CPO; and Cloudera’s chief financial officer (CFO), Jim Frankola, will serve as CFO. The name of the combined company is yet to be released.

Current Hortonworks CEO Bearden will join the board of directors, along with three other existing Hortonworks directors; and another five directors, including Reilly, will come from Cloudera’s board of directors — for a total of nine. A 10th director will be selected by the combined board.