CA's shares spike 17 per cent on BMC buyout talk

Enterprise software giants are exploring possibility of a deal that would see CA taken off stock market, according to Bloomberg report

CA's shares spiked last night on reports it could be the subject of the biggest leveraged buyout since Dell was taken private.

According to a report by Bloomberg, CA could be taken private in a potential union with fellow enterprise software behemoth BMC.

The report, which cited people familiar with the process, said talks are at an early stage but that the duo have approached banks about putting together a debt package to finance a BMC purchase of CA. Neither party offered comment in the report.

CA's shares spiked by 17 per cent in after-hours trading on NASDAQ last night.

IT management software specialist BMC has been owned by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital since it was taken private in 2013.

In its last set of results before it was taken off the stock market, BMC recorded revenues of $2.2bn (£1.7bn), compared with the $4.04bn in revenues CA recorded in its fiscal 2017, flat on the previous year.

Bloomberg pointed out that a union between the two would be the biggest leveraged buyout of a tech company since Michael Dell and Silver Lake led Dell's $25bn buyout in 2013.