Talend is set to be acquired by Thoma Bravo in a $2.4 billion deal

The Philly technologists that made up Center City-based Stitch, a spinoff of analytics firm RJMetrics founded in 2017, have had quite an eventful few years.

Stitch was acquired by Talend in 2018 for $60 million, and in early 2020 was growing at a steady pace, adding positions to its about 50-person team.

Now, about a year later, we learn that Talend, the California-based makers of a cloud data integration solution, is set to be acquired by Thoma Bravo, a leading private equity investment firm focused on software and technology-enabled services sectors.

Thoma Bravo intends to acquire all of the outstanding ordinary shares and American depositary shares of Talend, for $66 per ordinary share and ADS in cash, it announced last week. The memorandum of understanding values Talend at about $2.4 billion, and it was unanimously approved by Talend’s board of directors, according to its public statement.

As part of the 2018 deal, Stitch’s CEO and cofounder Jake Stein became SVP of a Stitch business unit within Talend, and its CTO, Chris Merrick, became Talend’s VP of product and engineering. (Stein left the company last summer, according to his LinkedIn profile.)

Merrick told Technical.ly in an email that the Philly-based employees shouldn’t expect any changes due to the impending deal.

“The potential acquisition is the result of an intentional strategy to enhance Talend’s business and will give us more flexibility to be innovative and disrupt a high-growth market,” he wrote.

Merrick added that as a part of that strategy, the company will be growing the team in Philadelphia. It currently has several open engineering positions, he said.

The deal includes a 30-day “go-shop” period which expires on April 10, Talend said. It permits Talend’s board and advisors to solicit alternative acquisition proposals, and the company has the right to terminate the memorandum of understanding to go for a better proposal.

“The last twelve months have underscored the importance of digital transformation and the unique and vital role Talend plays in ensuring enterprises can trust the data fueling their business,” said CEO Christal Bemont in a statement. “I am pleased with how the team has executed through the challenges of 2020 and successfully delivered on the strategic initiatives and targets we laid out a year ago.”