Apptio Sells to PE Firm Vista Equity for $1.94B Two Years After IPO

Apptio is being taken private by investment firm Vista Equity Partners in a $1.94 billion acquisition.

Founded in Bellevue, WA, in 2007, Apptio (NASDAQ: [[ticker:APTI]]) helps corporate leaders track and manage IT spending. The company went public in 2016 with a $96 million IPO, and has recently been acquiring other businesses. It bought FittedCloud, a Boston-based developer of cloud optimization software, for an undisclosed price last month. In February, Apptio paid $42.5 million in cash and stock for Digital Fuel, a Los Angeles-based provider of IT and business management software.

Apptio’s headquarters will remain in Bellevue. It appears that co-founder Sunny Gupta may stay on after the deal, too: Vista co-founder Brian Sheth said in a news release that the private equity firm is excited to partner with Gupta and the Apptio team, though it didn’t provide further details. Vista has been an active software investor, making both strategic investments in companies such as Austin-based YouEarnedIt and acquisitions of larger companies like Minneapolis, MN-based Apple device manager Jamf last year and its $1.79 billion buyout of San Mateo, CA-based Marketo in 2016. Vista sold Marketo to Adobe for $4.75 billion in September.

Vista, which has offices in Austin, San Francisco, Chicago, and Oakland, expects the acquisition to close in the first quarter of 2019. The deal has a 30-day “go-shop” period, that lets Apptio explore alternative, better deals. Vista’s offer is worth $38 per share. Shares of Apptio closed Nov. 9 at $24.85 apiece. The company went public two years ago at $16 per share.

Author: David Holley

David is the national correspondent at Xconomy. He has spent most of his career covering business of every kind, from breweries in Oregon to investment banks in New York. A native of the Pacific Northwest, David started his career reporting at weekly and daily newspapers, covering murder trials, city council meetings, the expanding startup tech industry in the region, and everything between. He left the West Coast to pursue business journalism in New York, first writing about biotech and then private equity at The Deal. After a stint at Bloomberg News writing about high-yield bonds and leveraged loans, David relocated from New York to Austin, TX. He graduated from Portland State University.