Citrix Systems Inc., which sells network security and desktop virtualization software tools, is reportedly trying to expand into the collaboration space by acquiring the work management platform provider Wrike Inc. in a deal valued at more than $2 billion.

Bloomberg, which first reported the news, cited people familiar with the matter as saying talks are at an “advanced” stage and the deal could be concluded this week.

The acquisition of Wrike, which is owned by Vista Equity Partners, would be the largest in Citrix’s history, Bloomberg added. It would also mean a solid profit for Vista, which acquired a majority stake in Wrike in 2018 for about $800 million.

The Wrike platform is a digital work management tool that teams can use to track dates and dependencies associated with projects, manage assignments and resources, and track time. It also provides collaboration tools designed to aid in conversations, asset creation and decision-making. They include a Live co-editor, discussion threads on tasks and tools for attaching documents, editing them and tracking their changes.

Citrix has a few products that help enable remote work such as its content collaboration tools, but Bloomberg said acquiring Wrike would enable it to become much more competitive in the collaboration software market.

“If Citrix is truly buying Wrike, it would likely integrate that platform with those content collaboration tools,” analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy told SiliconANGLE.

Citrix’s desire to get back into collaboration might seem odd, as the company previously had a strong presence in the space with its GoTo Meeting platform. However, Citrix sold GoTo Meeting for about $1.8 billion to the remote desktop access provider LogMeIn Inc. in 2016 after pressure from the activist investor Elliott Management Inc.

In the last year, the collaboration space has suddenly become extremely profitable due to the coronavirus pandemic that prompted a massive rise in the popularity of remote work. Wrike’s rivals in the market include Slack Technologies Inc., itself the subject of a takeover by Salesforce.com Inc., as well as Asana Inc. and Trello Inc., which is owned by Atlassian Inc.

Analyst Charles King of Pund-IT Inc. told SiliconANGLE that Go To Meeting was more focused on enabling communications between employees, whereas the Wrike platform is more about supporting teams and other forms of collaboration.

“Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack may be an unspoken driver for this deal but it also seems clear that the competitive landscape for Citrix has become increasingly complicated since the arrival of COVID-19,” King said.

From another angle, Citrix’s acquisition of Wrike would also mean it’s moving out of platform software and into the software-as-a-service business too, said Constellation Research Inc.’s Holger Mueller. Wrike’s platform would be complementary to some of its existing offerings and expand its wallet share in the collaboration market too, he said.

“It’s also possible Citrix wants to emulate the ServiceNow strategy of expanding into the related space of project management,” Mueller added. “It’s perhaps also a sign that the application virtualization market, as dynamic it may be, is getting commoditized quickly.”

Photo: Citrix/Flickr