Cloudera, a provider of a platform for machine learning and advanced data analytics built on the latest open-source technologies, has been acquired by affiliates of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and KKR in an all-cash private equity transaction valued at approximately $5.3 billion. Almost at the same time, in two separate agreements, Cloudera has agreed to buy SaaS companies Datacoral and Cazena to strengthen its hybrid cloud portfolio.
Cazena powers instant cloud data lakes, making it possible to accelerate time to analytics and AI/ML from months to minutes. Datacoral’s fully managed service would power “fast and easy” data transformations and integrations for any type of data via a “robust” multi-tenant SaaS architecture that runs in the cloud. Financial details of the Cazena and Datacoral acquisitions were not disclosed.
As Cloudera advances from big data to self-service, the acquisition of Datacoral and Cazena is intended to support the expansion of Cloudera’s public cloud offering and broaden Cloudera’s hybrid cloud market opportunities.
“This transaction provides substantial and certain value to our shareholders while also accelerating Cloudera’s long-term path to hybrid cloud leadership for analytics that span the complete data lifecycle – from the Edge to AI,” said Rob Bearden, CEO of Cloudera about the private equity acquisition. “We believe that as a private company with the expertise and support of experienced investors such as CD&R and KKR, Cloudera will have the resources and flexibility to drive product-led growth and expand our addressable market opportunity.”
The transaction will result in Cloudera becoming a private company and is expected to close in the second half of 2021.
‘New Era of Low-Code, No-Code Self-Service’
“The company has made significant progress establishing the Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) as a leader in hybrid and multi-cloud analytics,” said Jeff Hawn, CD&R Operating Partner who will serve as Chairman of the company upon the close of the transaction. “We believe that our experience and capabilities can offer valuable support to accelerate expansion into new products and markets.”
“We have followed the Cloudera story closely for a number of years and are pleased to be supporting its mission of helping companies make better use of their data in the ever-evolving hybrid IT environment,” said John Park, KKR Partner and Head of Americas Technology Private Equity. “We are excited to contribute to Cloudera’s accelerated innovation efforts as a private company.”
Datacoral would add an “easy-to-use” SaaS platform to the Cloudera CDP portfolio that provides “simple, reliable” access to more than 80 common data sources. Since no engineering is required, customers may spend more time focused on analyzing and improving their businesses.
Cazena’s SaaS platform would include end-to-end infrastructure and orchestration, so clients get a fully managed, continuous operations model. This would deliver guaranteed security and performance 24×7.
“The acquisitions will enable Cloudera to usher in a new era of low-code, no-code self-service by automating complex operations – enabling our customers to focus on getting value from their data rather than configuring, operating and managing the underlying infrastructure,” added Rob Bearden. “Both businesses will enable our combined customers to enjoy a reduction in complexity and faster time to value for their data initiatives, leading to improved insights, faster innovation, and stronger engagements with their customers and partners.”
