Vista Equity Partners
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Vista Equity Partners is an American investment firm focused on financing and forwarding software, data, and technology-enabled startup businesses. Vista has invested in hundreds of companies, including
Misys Finastra is a financial software company headquartered in London, England.Ping Identity Ping Identity Corporation is an American software company established in 2002 by Andre Durand and Bryan Field-Elliot. It is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, United States with development offices in Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia, Tel Av ...
, and
Marketo Marketo, Inc. is an American software company, headquartered in San Mateo, California. Marketo develops and sells marketing automation software for account-based marketing and other marketing services and products including SEO and content crea ...
. The company has offices in several cities, including
Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...
, New York City, and San Francisco.


History


2000–2009

Vista Equity Partners was founded in 2000 by American businessman and investor Robert F. Smith, who serves as chairman and CEO. Vista opened its first office in San Francisco in 2000. In November 2008, the company closed a funding round for its first institutional fund with a total of $1.3 billion raised. Vista is known for applying detailed scrutiny in human resources when investing in firms, in a procedure it calls Vista Standard Operating Procedures.


2010–2019

In 2010, Brian N. Sheth was promoted to president and awarded the title of co-founder of the firm. He remained in this role until his departure in 2020. In 2011, the company opened an office in Austin, Texas. Over the years, Vista has added several
private equity fund A private equity fund (abbreviated as PE fund) is a collective investment scheme used for making investments in various equity (and to a lesser extent debt) securities according to one of the investment strategies associated with private equity ...
s and credit funds to its portfolio, including its first fund, the Vista Credit Opportunities Fund, which raised $196 million. During that time, Vista opened several funds that specifically target middle-market companies and
emerging technology Emerging technologies are technologies whose development, practical applications, or both are still largely unrealized. These technologies are generally new but also include older technologies finding new applications. Emerging technologies ar ...
companies. The company also has a permanent capital investment fund, Vista Equity Partners Perennial, which focuses on growing
vertical market software Vertical market software is aimed at addressing the needs of any given business within a discernible vertical market (specific industry or market). While horizontal market software can be useful to a wide array of industries (such as word processors ...
companies. In 2018, Vista was named the top software investor of the past decade by Pitchbook. Also in 2018, Vista's sale of Marketo to Adobe was named Deal of the Year by Buyouts magazine. In 2019, Vista was named Dealmaker of the Year at the PitchBook Private Equity Awards.


2020–present

As of May 2020, Vista had more than $57 billion in
capital commitment Future liability for capital expenditure in respect of which contract have been made. A Capital Commitment, Committed Capital or simply Commitment, is the agreed capital a General Partner can request (or draw down) from a Limited Partner. When ...
s. In 2020, Vista joined
Diligent Corporation Diligent Corporation, known as Diligent, is a software as a service company that enables board members of corporations, government organisations, and not-for-profit groups to share and collaborate information for board meetings. Headquartered in ...
's modern leadership initiative and pledged to create five new board roles among its portfolio companies for racially diverse candidates. As of June 2021, Vista had more than $81 billion in assets under management. In August 2021, its chief operating officer David Breach was announced as president of Vista, the previous incumbent, Brian N. Sheth, a Vista co-founder, resigning in 2020 following the criminal tax investigation of CEO Smith. In January 2022, it was announced that Citrix Systems had been acquired in a $16.5 billion deal by affiliates of Vista and Evergreen Coast Capital. The all-cash acquisition will see Citrix merge with
TIBCO TIBCO Software Inc. is an American business intelligence software company founded in 1997 in Palo Alto, California. It has headquarters in Palo Alto, California, and offices in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South A ...
, a Vista portfolio company. In August 2022, Vista agreed to acquire tax automation software platform maker Avalara, Inc. for $8.4 billion including debt.


Tax evasion

In October 2020, Vista's CEO Robert F. Smith and investor Robert T. Brockman were named in a tax evasion case. That month, Smith signed a non-prosecution agreement with the IRS, agreeing to pay $139 million and testify against Brockman. The following month, Vista's president and co-founder Brian Sheth departed the company, stating that his leaving was unrelated to the tax situation.


Investments


2000–2009

In August 2000, Vista invested in SourceNet Solutions, a provider of finance and accounting business process outsourcing services. Between 2001 an 2005, Vista invested in several software companies, including
BigMachines BigMachines, now Oracle Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ), was a software company founded in 2000 by Godard Abel and Christopher Shutts, which was acquired by Oracle in 2013. The software is designed to integrate with enterprise resource planning ...
, a provider of product configuration software, and Aspect Communications, a contact center technology company, among others. In 2004, Vista acquired Applied Systems, Inc., an insurance software company. In 2005, Vista invested in MDSI Mobile Data Solutions. In 2006, Vista invested in
Reynolds and Reynolds The Reynolds and Reynolds Company is a private corporation based in Dayton, Ohio. Its primary business is providing business forms, management software and professional services to car dealerships. Its software is used to manage sales logistics ...
, an auto technology company. The following year, Vista acquired Indus International, which it later merged with MDSI Mobile Data Solutions to form Ventyx, Inc. That year, the company also invested in SirsiDynix, a library software company. In 2008, Vista acquired P2 Energy Solutions Inc, a software company that helps oil and gas producers keep track of drilling leases. The following year, the company acquired SumTotal Systems from Accel Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, as well as MicroEdge from Advent Software.


2010–2019

In 2011, the firm acquired multiple companies, including Sage Healthcare, an electronic health records company, which it renamed Vitera Healthcare Solutions. Between 2012 and 2013, Vista acquired companies including Bullhorn, Inc. a CRM software provider;
Misys Finastra is a financial software company headquartered in London, England.Websense Forcepoint, an American multinational corporation software company headquartered in Austin, Texas, that develops computer security software and data protection, cloud access security broker, firewall and cross-domain solutions. Forcepoint was fo ...
; and Active Network, Inc, an online event registration service. Between 2014 and 2015, Vista acquired
Automated Insights Automated Insights ("Ai") is an American-based technology company that specializes in natural language generation (NLG) software that turns big data into readable narratives. Automated Insights produced 300 million pieces of content in 2013, wh ...
, a software company specializing in
natural-language generation Natural language generation (NLG) is a software process that produces natural language output. In one of the most widely-cited survey of NLG methods, NLG is characterized as "the subfield of artificial intelligence and computational linguistics th ...
; Main Street Hub, a social-media company;
PowerSchool Vista Equity Partners is an American investment firm focused on financing and forwarding software, data, and technology-enabled startup businesses. Vista has invested in hundreds of companies, including Misys, Ping Identity, and Marketo. The co ...
, a provider of educational technology, and
TIBCO Software TIBCO Software Inc. is an American business intelligence software company founded in 1997 in Palo Alto, California. It has headquarters in Palo Alto, California, and offices in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South A ...
, a company that specializes in big data and software integrations, among others. In 2016, Vista acquired
Solera Holdings Solera Inc is an American company based in Texas which provides risk management and asset protection software and services to the automotive industry and property insurance marketplace. Solera also provides digital identity management service ...
for $6.5 billion and
Cvent Cvent Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: CVT) is a publicly held software-as-a-service (SaaS) company based in Virginia that specializes in meetings, events, and hospitality management technology. The company has over 4,000 employees. Cvent offers web-based ...
for $1.65 billion, and announced agreements to acquire
Marketo Marketo, Inc. is an American software company, headquartered in San Mateo, California. Marketo develops and sells marketing automation software for account-based marketing and other marketing services and products including SEO and content crea ...
(marketing automation software),
Ping Identity Ping Identity Corporation is an American software company established in 2002 by Andre Durand and Bryan Field-Elliot. It is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, United States with development offices in Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia, Tel Av ...
(
single sign-on Single sign-on (SSO) is an authentication scheme that allows a user to log in with a single ID to any of several related, yet independent, software systems. True single sign-on allows the user to log in once and access services without re-enterin ...
digital security), and GovDelivery (technology platform for government bodies). The company invested in Granicus and
Vivid Seats Vivid Seats Inc. is an American ticket exchange and resale company. The company went public on October 19, 2021 after a merger earlier in that year with Horizon Acquisition Corporation, a SPAC. It trades on the NYSE and Nasdaq as SEAT. In 2017, ...
that same year. Vista subsequently merged GovDelivery and Granicus into one company. In 2017, Vista acquired several software companies, including NAVEX Global. That year, the company also invested in Upserve, a restaurant software provider, and Market Track. In 2018, Vista acquired
Apptio Apptio is a Bellevue, Washington-based company founded in 2007 that develops technology business management (TBM) software as a service (SaaS) applications. Apptio enterprise apps are designed to assess and communicate the cost of IT services for ...
, a cloud-based business management software, Alegeus, and entered into an agreement to acquire Mindbody for $1.9 billion. That year, Vista invested in several other companies, including
Wrike Wrike, Inc. is an American project management application service provider based in San Jose, California. Wrike also has offices in Dallas, Tallinn, Nicosia, Dublin, Tokyo, Melbourne and Prague. History Wrike was founded in 2006 by Andrew File ...
, a provider of project management software. In 2019, Vista bought a majority stake in
Acquia Acquia is a software-as-a-service company co-founded by Dries Buytaert and Jay Batson to provide enterprise products, services, and technical support for the open-source web content management platform Drupal. Overview The company is venture ca ...
, and completed its first IPO when it took Ping Identity public. Also in 2019, Vista purchased Sonatype, a cybersecurity, open-source automation company and Accelya, a technology provider for the airline industry.


2020–present

In 2020, Vista acquired Tripleseat, a web-based sales and event management company, and purchased a 2.32% stake in
Jio Platforms Jio Platforms is an Indian multinational technology company, headquartered in Mumbai. It is a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. Established in 2019, it acts as a holding company for India's largest mobile network operator Jio and other dig ...
. In November 2020, Vista acquired CRM-Software provider
Pipedrive Pipedrive is a cloud-based software as a service company. It is the developer of the web application and mobile app Pipedrive, a sales customer relationship management (CRM) tool. The company has more than 1,000 employees in its eight offices a ...
for $1.5 billion. In the same month, Vista also acquired Customer Success company Gainsight for $1.1 billion. In April 2021, Vista completed its acquisition of
Pluralsight Pluralsight, LLC is an American privately held online education company that offers a variety of video training courses for software developers, IT administrators, and creative professionals through its website. Founded in 2004 by Aaron Skonna ...
for $22.50 per share. In September 2021, Vista acquired a majority stake in Drift, a sales and marketing software company, valued at over $1.0 billion in the deal. Also in September, Vista announced it intended to acquire Blue Prism for £1.095 billion ($1.5 billion), and to merge it into
Tibco TIBCO Software Inc. is an American business intelligence software company founded in 1997 in Palo Alto, California. It has headquarters in Palo Alto, California, and offices in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South A ...
but Blue Prism was ultimately bought by
SS&C Technologies SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (known as SS&C) is an American multinational holding company headquartered in Windsor, Connecticut, that sells software and software as a service to the financial services industry. The company has offices in the ...
in March 2022 for approximately $1.6 billion (£1.25 billion).


Divestments

In December 2004, Vista sold SourceNet Solutions to
Mellon Financial Mellon Financial Corporation was an investment firm which was once one of the world's largest money management firms. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was in the business of institutional and high-net-worth individual asset management, incl ...
. Between 2010 and 2013, Vista sold several companies, including Ventyx to
ABB Group ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to crea ...
for over $1 billion, BigMachines to
Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The word '' ...
for over $400 million, and P2 Energy Solutions to Advent International Corp. In September 2014, Vista announced the sale of MicroEdge to
Blackbaud Blackbaud (NASDAQ:BLKB) is a cloud computing provider that serves the social good community— nonprofits, foundations, corporations, education institutions, healthcare organizations, religious organizations, and individual change agents. Its p ...
for $160 million. In 2015, the company sold Websense to
Raytheon Raytheon Technologies Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. It is one of the largest aerospace and defense manufacturers in the world by revenue and market capitaliza ...
for $1.9 billion. Between 2015 and 2020, Vista divested other companies, including selling BullHorn, Inc to
Insight Venture Partners Insight Partners (previously Insight Venture Partners) is an American venture capital and private equity firm based in New York City. The firm invests in growth-stage technology, software and Internet businesses. History Insight Partners was fo ...
, selling parts of Active Network to Global Payments Inc. and selling NAVEX Global to
BC Partners BC Partners is a British international investment firm with over $40 billion of assets under management across private equity, credit and real estate in Europe and North America. Its global headquarters are in London. The firm invests across all ...
. During this time, Vista also sold SirsiDynix to ICV Partners, and Main Street Hub to
GoDaddy GoDaddy Inc. is an American publicly traded Internet domain registrar and web hosting company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, and incorporated in Delaware. , GoDaddy has more than 21 million customers and over 6,600 employees worldwide. The co ...
for $125 million. In 2018, Vista sold
Marketo Marketo, Inc. is an American software company, headquartered in San Mateo, California. Marketo develops and sells marketing automation software for account-based marketing and other marketing services and products including SEO and content crea ...
to
Adobe Systems Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the crea ...
for $4.75 billion. In 2020, Vista sold Vertafore to Roper Technologies for $5.35 billion and Regulatory DataCorp to moody's for $700 million. In 2021, Vista divested from Aspira, a software provider and Numerator, a market intelligence firm Vista had backed since 2017. Also in 2021, Vista sold Allocate, which it acquired in 2018, to RLDatix for $1.3 billion.


Philanthropy

In September 2017, Vista and their companies pledged $1 million to assist the
Akshaya Patra Foundation The Akshaya Patra Foundation is a non-profit trust of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), located in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. The organisation operates the Midday Meal Scheme (a school lunch programme) in India. Mi ...
in delivering meals to Indian school children. In 2019, Robert F. Smith committed to eliminate the student loan debt of the
Morehouse College , mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made") , type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college , academic_affiliations ...
Class of 2019. He paid $34 million to cover the students' loans and the loans of their parents for their studies.


References


External links

* {{Largest private equity firms Financial services companies established in 2000 Companies based in San Francisco Private equity firms of the United States American companies established in 2000