Thoma Bravo acquires SaaS company Anaplan for $10.7B

SaaS (software-as-a-service) software maker Anaplan is being acquired by private equity firm Thoma Bravo for $10.7 billion.

Founded in the UK and now based in San Francisco, Anaplan offers cloud-based finance and planning and counts almost 2,000 customers worldwide, including Coca-Cola, Shell, Thomas Cook and VMware. The company went public in 2018, two years after rival SaaS firm Workday considered an acquisition attempt.

Under the terms of the deal, Anaplan shareholders will receive $66 a share in cash, while the company’s current chief executive Frank Calderoni will continue to lead the company.

“Anaplan is a clear leader in connected planning, solving critical business priorities for the world’s largest enterprises as they implement strategic and complex digital transformations,” said Holden Spaht, managing partner at Thoma Bravo said in a press release. “We have followed Anaplan for years and have seen the incredible value they bring customers through their best-in-class planning platform. We look forward to leveraging Thoma Bravo’s extensive operational and investment expertise in enterprise software to support Anaplan in its future growth.”

The deal represents the latest in a string of high-profile leveraged buyouts of software companies in the last 18 months.

The software sector experienced rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, attracting interest from private equity firms looking to capitalize on this growing trend. In November 2021, Advent International and Permira announced the $14 billion buyout of cybersecurity company McAfee, while Elliott Management and Vista Equity embarked on a $16.5 billion takeover of Citrix in January of this year. Thoma Bravo itself acquired cybersecurity firm Proofpoint for around $12 billion last year.