Vista and Blackstone in talks to acquire software maker Smartsheet, sources say

Smartsheet

05/09/2024 18:11

By Milana Vinn
       NEW YORK, Sept 5 (Reuters) - A private equity consortium
including Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone  BX.N  is in
talks to acquire Smartsheet  SMAR.N , a U.S. maker of workplace
collaboration software with a market value of about $7 billion,
people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
    A deal could be signed in the coming weeks if the talks
don't fall apart, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the
discussions are confidential. The terms being discussed could
not be immediately learned. 
    Smartsheet's shares jumped nearly 10% on the news on
Thursday, before trading was briefly halted. 
    Reuters was first to report in July that Bellevue,
Washington-based company was working with Qatalyst Partners to
review acquisition offers from private equity firms. 
    Smartsheet did not immediately respond to requests for
comment. Vista, which holds a 4.7% stake in Smartsheet, and
Blackstone declined to comment. 
    Smartsheet's software allows organizations to manage, track
and automate their workflow using a single platform, offering
more features and capabilities than Microsoft's  MSFT.O  Excel.
    It focuses on big corporate clients that have complex
operations, such as Pfizer  PFE.N , Cisco  CSCO.O  and American
Airlines  AAL.O , serving 85% of the Fortune 500 companies,
according to its website. Some of its competitors offering
similar products, like Asana  ASAN.N  and Monday.com  6B6.SG ,
target smaller companies.

 (Reporting by Milana Vinn in New York; Editing by Anirban Sen)
 ((Anirban.Sen@thomsonreuters.com; Twitter: @asenjourno; Reuters
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