Wrike to be acquired by Citrix for $2.25bn

19 Jan 2021

Wrike headquarters in San Jose. Image: Steven Cotton Photography

Cloud-based project management platform Wrike, which has its European headquarters in Dublin, will become part of Citrix’s hybrid work offering.

Following a report from Bloomberg that Citrix was eyeing an acquisition of Wrike, both companies have today (19 January) confirmed the deal.

In 2018, Vista Equity Partners acquired a majority stake in Wrike, with a deal that valued the company at around $800m.

Now, Citrix has agreed to buy the workplace management software company for $2.25bn in an all-cash deal. The announcement came ahead of Citrix’s full-year 2020 earnings call, where the company reported revenue of $3.24bn and profit of $504.4m.

Based in San Jose, California, Wrike employs more than 1,000 people across its international offices, including its European headquarters in Dublin.

‘In the future, success will go to those companies that can support flexible and hybrid work model’
– DAVID HENSHALL

Both companies will continue to operate independently until the close of the deal, which is expected in the first half of 2021. Post-acquisition, Wrike founder and CEO Andrew Filev will continue to lead his team, reporting directly to Citrix CFO Arlen Shenkman.

The deal combines Citrix’s delivery of digital workspaces with Wrike’s collaborative workplace management software. Both services are seen to have growth opportunities with the rise of distributed and remote teams.

According to the announcement, Wrike’s offerings will be plugged into the Citrix platform. Together, they will serve more than 400,000 customers across 140 countries.

“This partnership could not happen at a better time, given the market shifts in 2020, the much anticipated transition to the next normal, and the exponential growth in the demand for work management solutions,” Filev wrote in a company blog.

Wrike was founded in 2006 and its extensive project management platform is already used by clients such as Google, Dell, Siemens and Airbnb.

Citrix’s offerings include Citrix Workspace, a virtualisation platform that allows multiple users to remotely access and operate a desktop or app.

“Work today is happening everywhere – at home, in the office and on the road,”said David Henshall, president and CEO of Citrix. “We believe that in the future, success will go to those companies that can support flexible and hybrid work models and provide a consistent, secure and efficient experience that removes the complexity and noise from work so employees can focus and perform at their best, wherever they happen to be.

“Together, Citrix and Wrike will deliver the solutions needed to power a cloud-delivered digital workspace experience that enables teams to securely access the resources and tools they need to collaborate and get work done in the most efficient and effective way possible across any channel, device or location.”

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com