Broadcom Software’s Krause Tapped to Become CEO of Citrix-Tibco Combo

Departing Broadcom Software president Tom Krause will become CEO of Citrix and Tibco when they come together later this year. Vista Equity Partners and Elliott Management affiliate Evergreen Coast Capital announced late Monday that they have tapped Krause.

Citrix’s Tom Krause

The two private equity firms in January agreed to collectively acquire Citrix for $16.5 billion. The agreement calls for them to combine Citrix with plans combine it with Tibco, a Vista company since 2014. Broadcom revealed Krause’s imminent departure in an SEC filing earlier on Monday.

While Broadcom didn’t reveal where Krause is headed at the time, Vista and Evergreen made the announcement hours later. At the combined company, Krause will have a familiar task: bringing together two dissimilar companies. Broadcom, a semiconductor manufacturer, ventured into software first by acquiring CA Technologies in 2018. A year later, Broadcom acquired Symantec’s enterprise security business.

Krause was the key figure in Broadcom’s recent announcement that it is acquiring VMware for $61 billion. Notably, VMware and Citrix are competitors in the VDI and cloud desktop as-a-service (DaaS) markets. While that is Citrix’s core business, for VMware it’s a smaller portion of its overall portfolio.

“Tom is the right leader for the combined company, bringing decades of deep industry experience and an unparalleled track record of building companies and setting them up for sustainable growth and value creation,” David Kerko, Elliott’s head North American private equity and Evergreen’s senior managing director Isaac Kim, said. “We are strong believers in the combination and the opportunity to become an increasingly strategic partner to customers.”

Despite their belief in combining Citrix and Tibco, many experts said they don’t understand how the two will mesh. Citrix’s VDI and cloud DaaS businesses cater to different enterprise stakeholders and partner bases than Tibco, a provider of analytics and data integration software.

Nevertheless, Citrix interim CEO Bob Calderoni believes the two companies are complementary. Back in January, when the companies reached the agreement, Calderoni said: “Together with Tibco, we will be able to operate with greater scale and provide a larger customer base with a broader range of solutions to accelerate their digital transformations and enable them to deliver the future of hybrid work.”

Nabeel Youakim, a former Citrix VP of products, solutions and architecture, said Citrix needs a technologist at the top. The 22-year Citrix veteran, now chief development officer at rival Tehama, said Krause is better known for his financial skills.

“He is not a true technologist,” Youakim told Channel Futures. “Citrix’s best years were when they had a product focused CEO and a strong CFO to support financial growth.”

The deal remains on pace to close this quarter, according to Monday’s Vista-Evergreen announcement. Calderoni will remain chairman and acting CEO of Citrix and Tibco CEO Dan Streetman will remain in their roles until the deal closes.