Data analytics firm Cloudera is set go private in a $5.3 billion private equity buyout led by KKR and Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R).

The Palo Alto-based company provides cloud-based tools and services that allows companies to analyse and manage big data.

It primarily targets customers in highly regulated industries including financial firms and government agencies.

Cloudera’s shares jumped 23.9 per cent on news of the all-cash deal, which was a significant premium on its publicly traded share price.

The company merged with rival big data specialist Hortonworks in December 2019, after years of competing.

Cloudera’s revenue in its first quarter was $224.3 million, a 7 per cent year-on-year increase from $210.5 million.

The company posted a $40.4 million loss for the quarter compared to a $58.0 million loss the previous year, a 30 per cent decrease.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year and will include a 30-day period where the company will be allowed to consider alternative competing offers.

Data from analyst house FactSet finds that of the 12 largest US tech acquisitions in the past year seven have been led by private equity firms.

In May, Cybersecurity software vendor Proofpoint was acquired by private equity firm Thomas Bravo in April a $12.3 billion deal.

“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, also in a statement. ”We are excited to contribute to Cloudera‘s accelerated innovation efforts as a private company.”

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