Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Citrix Moves Closer To Split Of GoTo Product Line

Citrix Systems is moving closer to a spinout of its GoTo product line this week, saying that it has named Kevin Parker, co-founder and senior operating principal at Bridge Growth Partners as Chairman of a soon-to-be-formed company specifically encompassing the Citrix "GoTo" product line. Those products--most of which are developed in Santa Barbara--will be split out from Citrix in late 2016, according to the company. Citrix has been looking to sell the GoTo product line since last year, after it failed to sell the entire company as a single entity. Citrix said in July of 2015 that it had begun a look at "strategic alternatives" to its GoTo line of products, and decided in November that it would instead spin out the product line to its own, publicly traded entity. That new entity will contain GoToAssist, GoToMeeting, GoToMyPC, GoToTraining, GoToWebinar, Grasshopper and OpenVoice--and have approximately $600M in annual revenues. A large chunk of those products can trace their roots back to Santa Barbara's ExpertCity, which was acquired by December of 2003 and became Citrix Online. It's unclear where the new Citrix spinout would be headquartered. The company has had around 600 or so employees in the region in recent years working on the GoTo line of products.

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