Potential acquirers of the software vendor include SAP, Hewlett-Packard and even Infosys, according to one analyst
Tibco's board of directors has begun a review of "strategic and financial alternatives," which presumably include a sale, the middleware vendor has confirmed following a news report of its plans.
The board has appointed a committee of independent directors to conduct the review, which began Aug. 16, Tibco said late Wednesday.
The disclosure came about a month after the Wall Street Journal reported Tibco was in early talks about a sale and approaching potential buyers, which included private-equity firms.
"Following a detailed evaluation over the past several months, we have determined that it is prudent to undertake a wide review of strategic and financial options to see which alternative or alternatives, including our standalone plans, are in fact the best way to maximize shareholder value," CEO Vivek Ranadivé said in a statement.
Although Tibco's revenue has grown this year, its stock price has fallen as the company missed analyst estimates and profits dipped.
Tibco sells a wide range of middleware and has been building out its analytics business, which includes the Spotfire data-discovery tool that competes with the likes of Tableau. Earlier this year, Tibco acquired commercial open source BI (business intelligence) vendor Jaspersoft.
Rumors of a Tibco sale have swirled on-and-off for years, with SAP often pegged as a potential buyer.
That outcome "still makes sense," said Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst with Constellation Research. SAP's NetWeaver middleware didn't achieve the success the company had hoped for and the addition of Tibco's product set would give it "credibility in the middleware space," Mueller said.
SAP is centering development efforts around the Hana in-memory computing platform, which remains "very database-centric," Mueller said.
In addition, Spotfire is Tibco's "crown jewel" and would complement SAP's Business Objects analytics family, he added.
Hewlett-Packard could be another buyer for Tibco, as it has a "similar problem" to SAP's with a lack of middleware, Mueller said. With Tibco, HP can make a better case to customers that they should build their applications on its cloud, he said.
Systems integrators with ambitions of building products -- such as Infosys, which is now led by former SAP technology chief Vishal Sikka -- are also potential buyers, according to Mueller.
Less likely buyers for Tibco would be Oracle and IBM, which have ample supplies of middleware already. If either did make such a move, it might be more to remove a competitor from the table.
Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address is Chris_Kanaracus@idg.com
The faith people have in brands creates opportunity for those brands to become trusted advisors. In turn, this builds success by increasing the brand’s profile, letting it broaden its product offering and driving stronger customer loyalty.
The push to start new businesses continues. In Q1 2017, the number of seed and angel deals increased by 1.4 per cent compared to Q1 2016.
When we read articles about the need for increased diversity in marketing land, it is often through the lens of gender.
How much of customer experience is having the foresight to know what those individuals might like, versus asking them? In Episode 5 of this new podcast series, BrandHook MD, Pip Stocks, talks with Tammy Marshall about the importance of asking your customers questions, how consistency plays a role in engagement, but how the unexpected adds extra value.
Interesting insight, well explained and the examples are just apt.Thanks for sharing!
FreshMindIdeas
The politics of branding - Brand science - CMO Australia
When the world that we live in floods with gigabytes of content every day, we have to learn to be selective about it. Such educational we...
Paulina Cameron
ADMA launches education program to tackle viewability, ad fraud and brand safety
Hi, i am an Aistralian ALK patient, been on xalkori dec 13 to oct 15 and achieved remission of disease, since been on Ceritinib until no...
gary packer
Pfizer Australia adopts AI-powered digital analyst tool for sales and marketing decision making
Hi James, shouldn't marketers also be focusing on collecting and utilizing up to date first-party profiling data on customers so that mes...
Tom
3 ways customer data can increase online sales conversion
Wouldn't reconnecting with younger consumers be in direct contravention of the code on alcohol advertising?
Tim Palmer
Vodka Cruiser reconnects with younger consumers via category-first Facebook Live campaign