March 22, 2022: -U.S. private equity giant Thoma Bravo has bought British enterprise software firm Anaplan for $10.7 billion.

On Monday, the deal will see Thoma Bravo pay $66 per share in an all-cash transaction.

The financial planning software vendor boasts over 1,900 customers worldwide and is viewed as a competitor to SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft.

Frank Calderoni, chairman and CEO of Anaplan, said that the takeover marks the start of a recent chapter for the company.

“We are confident that Thoma Bravo’s resources and insights will help us accelerate and scale our growth strategy,” he said.

Thoma Bravo has more than $103 billion in assets under management.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2022, providing there are no objections from regulators or Anaplan’s stockholders. Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners are acting as financial advisors.

Before listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018 with the ticker “PLAN,” Anaplan raised over $240 million in funding from the likes of Amazon- and Tesla-backer Baillie Gifford and Salesforce. It also relocated its headquarters to San Francisco, California.

Most 20 years, Thoma Bravo has acquired or invested in more than 375 companies.

Holden Spaht, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo, said that his firm had followed Anaplan for several years, a leader in “connected planning.”

Last week it emerged that activist investors had taken a stake in Anaplan.

Keith Meister’s Corvex Management and Scott Ferguson’s Sachem Head Capital Management teamed up to pursue changes at Anaplan.

According to regulatory filings released on Monday, Corvex and Sachem Head bought Anaplan shares because they viewed them as undervalued and “an attractive investment opportunity.” Jonathan Soros, a son of investor George Soros, also joined the buying spree through JS Capital Management.

The filings show that the three firms combined own about 9% of Anaplan’s outstanding shares.

Anaplan’s stock peaked in February 2021, and the previous week it was down around 40% on last year’s highs.

On Monday, the company’s share price increased over 25% to around $65 a share in pre-market trading.