Cloudera agrees to be acquired at 24% premium

Cloudera Inc. (NYSE: CLDR), a provider of enterprise data cloud platform, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by investment firms — Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) and KKR. This will be an all-cash transaction. The deal values the company at $5.3 billion, which equates to $16 per share, representing a 24% premium to the closing price as of May 28, 2021.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of the year. The deal has been approved by Cloudera’s Board and will next be put to a shareholder vote. Icahn Enterprises, which owns 18% of the company’s outstanding shares, has agreed to vote in favor of the deal.

Shares of the company are up by more than 20% in morning trading. The stock is up by approximately 23% year-to-date and also, for the trailing one-year period.

What Cloudera’s CEO said on the deal?

Going into the merits of becoming a private company and the advantage of having the backing of big investors, Rob Bearden, CEO of Cloudera said: 

"We believe that as a private company with the expertise and support of experienced investors such as CD&R and KKR, Cloudera will have the resources and flexibility to drive product-led growth and expand our addressable market opportunity."

What the acquirers said on the deal?

Jeff Hawn, Operating Partner at the private investment firm CD&R, will serve as Chairman of the company upon the completion of the transaction. Hawn said:

John Park, KKR Partner and Head of Americas Technology Private Equity, said the following on the deal:

KKR brings its experience of growing technology businesses including GoDaddy, Internet Brands, Epicor, BMC and Optiv to Cloudera.