Informatica closes deal to go private; Microsoft and Salesforce are strategic investors

Informatica, the enterprise software provider based in Redwood City and announced in April that it will be bought for $5.3 billion by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Permira Advisers.

Informatica's CEO and chairman, Sohaib Abbasi, made the announcement and added that the company is willing to pursue success for its employees and customers and believes that the new owners of the company share the same views with Informatica in terms of growth in the long-term.

On Thursday, the company officially became private in the multibillion-dollar deal that also involved the partnerships and investments from Microsoft and Salesforce. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Primera Funds shelled out most of the amount, but the investments of both Microsoft and Salesforce remained undisclosed.

Philip Howard of Bloor Research speculated on the possible reasons Informatica decided to go private and he thinks that the move creates fear and anxiety for both prospect and present customers, which he said is bad for business. Howard is further concerned on how the private company will now manage their products under new wings.

Informatica will be under the leadership of former chief product officer Anil Chakravarthy, as the new CEO while current CEO Sohaib Abbasi will become chairman of the board. Joining the team is Bruce Chizen, former Adobe CEO as a member of the board and special advisor.

Abbasi assured that he has all the best expectations for Informatica in the coming years and it is the company's goal to maintain its leadership when it comes to data. Also, the company's vision will not be measured quarterly but yearly, Abbasi added.

Under new leadership, Informatica will generally maintain what they have worked for in the past years. The company is said to still focus on big data integration, cloud integration, data security and master data management tools.