Cloud analytics drove Cloudera and Hortonworks to merge

Cloudera Inc. (CLDR) and Hortonworks Inc. (HDP) have agreed to combine themselves in an all-stock merger of equals. The combined company is expected to provide next-generation data platform solutions, spanning multi-cloud, on-premises, and the Edge. Following this, shares of both the companies soared in the after-hours.

The terms have listed out for about 60% of the equity of the combined company to be held by Cloudera stockholders, while Hortonworks stockholders will own the rest 40%. Hortonworks stockholders will receive 1.305 common shares of Cloudera for each share of Hortonworks stock owned. The companies have a combined fully-diluted equity value of $5.2 billion based on closing prices of October 2, 2018.

Following the completion of the deal, Cloudera’s executive chief Tom Reilly will be leading the combined entity as CEO. Hortonworks’ COO Scott Davidson will serve as operating chief and Hortonworks’ Chief Product Officer Arun Murthy will serve as Chief Product Officer. Cloudera’s CFO Jim Frankola will serve as finance chief.

Hortonworks’ CEO Rob Bearden will join the board of directors and current Cloudera board member Marty Cole will become the Chairman. The companies expect to complete the transaction during the first quarter of the calendar year 2019.

Bearded said, “Together, we are well positioned to continue growing and competing in the streaming and IoT, data management, data warehousing, machine learning/AI and hybrid cloud markets. Importantly, we will be able to offer a broader set of offerings that will enable our customers to capitalize on the value of their data.”

The combined company will have about $720 million in revenue as of the second quarter of fiscal 2019 and over 2,500 customers in its storehouse. It would also have over $150 million cash flow in calendar 2020 and over $500 million cash with no debt.

Cloudera went public in 2017, while Hortonworks that spun out of Yahoo (YHOO) became a public company in 2014. Despite being younger to Hortonworks, Cloudera is larger than Hortonworks in terms of market capitalization and revenue. In addition, Cloudera has a major investor, Intel (INTC).

Shares of Cloudera soared over 19% in the after-market session, while Hortonworks stock jumped more than 20%.