By Milana Vinn
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A private equity consortium including Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone is in talks to acquire Smartsheet, a U.S. maker of workplace collaboration software with a market value of about $7 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
A deal could be signed in the coming weeks if the talks don’t fall apart, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the discussions are confidential. The terms being discussed could not be immediately learned.
Smartsheet’s shares jumped nearly 10% on the news on Thursday, before trading was briefly halted.
Reuters was first to report in July that Bellevue, Washington-based company was working with Qatalyst Partners to review acquisition offers from private equity firms.
Smartsheet did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Vista, which holds a 4.7% stake in Smartsheet, and Blackstone declined to comment.
Smartsheet’s software allows organizations to manage, track and automate their workflow using a single platform, offering more features and capabilities than Microsoft’s Excel.
It focuses on big corporate clients that have complex operations, such as Pfizer, Cisco and American Airlines, serving 85% of the Fortune 500 companies, according to its website. Some of its competitors offering similar products, like Asana and Monday.com, target smaller companies.
(Reporting by Milana Vinn in New York; Editing by Anirban Sen)
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