Open-source data integration software vendor Talend (Nasdaq: TLND) recently reported its fourth-quarter results that surpassed market expectations. After a five-year run on the stock exchange, Talend is now getting ready to go back to being a privately held firm.

Talend’s Financials

Talend’s Q4 revenues grew 17% to $78.9 million, significantly ahead of the market’s forecast of $74.87 million. GAAP net loss was $19.6 million, compared with a loss of $11.7 million a year ago. On an adjusted basis, net loss was $0.10 per share, compared with a net loss of $0.30 per share forecast by the market.

By segment, subscription revenues grew 20% to $71.8 million. Professional services revenues declined to $7.2 million from $7.8 million a year ago.

Among other key metrics, Annual Recurring Revenue grew 19% to $288.7 million. Cloud ARR improved 101% over the year to $108.5 million. The dollar-based net expansion rate was 107% on a constant currency basis.

Talend ended the year with revenues of $287.5 million compared with $247.9 million a year ago. Net loss for the period increased from $61.6 million to $79.6 million.

For the first quarter, Talend forecast revenues of $77.5-$78.5 million with a loss of $0.27-$0.24 per share. The market was looking for revenues of $78.13 million with a loss of $0.25 per share. For the year, Talend forecast revenues of $327-$329 million with a loss of $0.89-$0.83 per share. The market was looking for revenues of $329.28 million with a loss of $0.85 per share.

Talend’s Growth Focus

During the quarter, Talend announced the extension of its partnership with Snowflake. The expanded contract will give Snowflake customers a two-week trial on Talend’s platform to let them experience Talend Data Fabric and Talend Trust Score. Talend Data Fabric is a single platform that delivers complete and uncompromised data in near real-time. The Talend Trust Score assesses data stored on Snowflake’s platform for reliability and measures data health by diagnosing and resolving data integrity issues in multi-cloud environments.

Talend recently announced that it had achieved AWS Migration Competency status, thus becoming an accredited provider of technology and expertise to help customers migrate to AWS. This is the third AWS Competency Talend has received, after having previously received AWS Data & Analytics Competency and AWS Retail Competency designations.

The data integration market is a very competitive market with several big names like Informatica, IBM, SAP, and Oracle. In a Gartner Magic Quadrant published last year, Talend was ranked a leader in the Data Integration Tool market on account of its database-agnostic and multi-cloud hybrid data integration capabilities. Its integrated support for API services and management makes it easier for data engineers to deliver integrated data views enabling effective data services orchestration. Talend also offers a comprehensive portfolio of capabilities including data integration, application integration, data preparation, data cataloging, data stewardship, and API management capabilities.

The biggest news though was the recent announcement that private equity firm Thoma Bravo would acquire Talend for $2.4 billion. Thoma Bravo focuses on software and technology-enabled services sectors and intends to acquire Talend for $66 per ordinary share. Post the acquisition, Talend would become a private company but will continue to invest in its cloud transition and products and solutions. Talend believes that the acquisition will give it the flexibility and access to capital needed to innovate and deliver in a high-growth market. The acquisition proposal was accepted unanimously by Talend’s Board and is expected to be closed by the end of the year.

Talend had listed on the stock exchange in 2016 at a stock price of $27.66 and a valuation of $537 million. In the five years since its market cap has almost quadrupled. Its stock is currently trading at $63.85 with a market cap of $2.1 billion. The stock hit a 52-week high of $65.90 in March. In August last year, the stock was trading at a 52-week low of $18.30. By becoming a private player again, Talend can keep its focus back on delivering strong products and technology without having to worry about investor expectations and share prices.