JANUARY 31, 2022 — CITRIX TO BE ACQUIRED, LAYOFFS PENDING?
Private equity firms Austin, Texas-based Vista Equity Partners and Menlo Park, California-based Evergreen Coast Capital have announced that they will purchase Citrix, a desktop virtualization specialist, for $16.5 billion to combine with Palo Alto, California-based Tibco, an analytics company. The company will be taken private with the deal expected to be completed by mid-2022.
The bad news, is that Evergreen Coast Capital is a subsidiary of activist investor Elliot Management with a reputation for reorganizations, divestiture of underperforming assets, extreme cost-cutting and personnel reductions, spin-offs, and upstreaming dividends to shareholders.
There is no doubt that the deal was driven by Elliot… “Elliott's Jesse Cohn joined the company's board in 2015 when the hedge fund urged Citrix to spin off some units and buy back shares, before stepping down in 2020.”
JANUARY 12, 2022 -- 80 LAYOFFS IN SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA
The restructuring is continuing with 80 layoffs, including engineers, senior directors. and other managers. at the company’s Santa Clara, California campus scheduled for January 18, 2022.
According to a company spokesperson, the restructuring will allow Citrix, which offers virtualization software, to improve its profit margins and position it for more predictable and profitable growth.”
NOVEMBER 18, 2021 — RESTRUCTURING LAYOFFS CONTINUE
The company’s board-approved restructuring plan is proceeding with approximately 110 layoffs, including full-time and part-time employees located at the company’s Fort Lauderdale, Florida headquarters.
NOVEMBER 16, 2021 — 50 LAYOFFS IN RALIEGH, NORTH CAROLINA
The company continues to implement its restructuring plan to improve operational efficiency. Approximately 50 employees in Raliegh, North Carolina will be impacted.
According to a company spokesperson, “We carefully examined our entire workforce and identified the roles and org structures we need to deliver on our strategy to help customers accelerate their IT modernization, enable secure distributed work and boost worker productivity. In some cases, employees may be shifted to new roles where they would focus on our key or new investment areas, and in others, positions will be eliminated to ensure we operate as efficiently as possible.”
“We are looking to ensure that we’re making all of the necessary investments that support our growth. And we’re looking to remove distractions that not only depress margins but distract us from growth.”
OCTOBER 6, 2017 — Original post…
According to published reports, Citrix may be cleaning up its operation by reducing personnel costs and enhancing profits in order to be more attractive to potential buyers. According to a recently filed Securities and Exchange Commission report, look ahead to another round of mass layoffs that may equal or exceed the layoff of approximately 1,000 employees in 2015.
Like many underperforming companies, the Citrix CEO, Kirill Tatarinov, was replaced early in his tenure by its CFO David Henshall in July 2017. Some Wall Street analysts suggested that this move might signal an emphasis on profits rather than growth. This is bolstered by the company’s corporate-speak blurb that attributed the move to “a series of strategic initiatives intended to drive operating margin expansion, increase capital return and facilitate further investment in accelerating Citrix’s transformation to a cloud-based subscription business and in high-growth areas, such as data security and analytics services.” Earlier this year reports that Bain Capital, The Carlyle Group, and others were looking to take the company private; but no purchaser is currently in sight. Once again, an activist hedge fund, Elliot Management, seems to be driving the changes.
From the SEC filing … Item 2.05. Costs Associated With Exit or Disposal Activities.
Consistent with its previously-announced plans intended to accelerate the transformation to a cloud-based subscription business, increase strategic focus, and improve operational efficiency, on October 4, 2017, Citrix Systems, Inc. (the “Company”) announced a restructuring program to support these initiatives (the “Restructuring Program”). The Restructuring Program will include, among other things, the elimination of full-time positions and facilities consolidation. Any
position elimination proposals in countries outside the United States will be subject to local law and consultation requirements.
The Company currently expects to record in the aggregate approximately $60 million to $100 million in pre-tax restructuring charges associated with the Restructuring Program. Included in these pre-tax charges are approximately $55 million to $70 million related to employee severance arrangements and approximately $5 million to $30 million related to the consolidation of leased facilities and other charges associated with the Restructuring Program. Substantially all of these charges will result in future cash expenditures. The Company currently anticipates completing the majority of the activities related to the Restructuring Program during the fourth quarter of 2017 and during fiscal year 2018. <Source>
Again, it pays for employees to watch personnel changes, the appearance of activist investors, and SEC announcements.