Thoma Bravo to Buy Anaplan for $10.7 Billion

Based in San Francisco, Anaplan makes software that helps businesses plan by modeling for different forecasting outcomes. The company has more than 1,900 customers world-wide, including Coca-Cola Co., Shell PLC and

VMware Inc.,

VMW 1.34%

which use its cloud-based offering to manage their sales operations, supply chains, inventories and financial planning.

Shares of Anaplan, which was founded in 2006 and went public in 2018, closed at $50.59 on Friday.

Buyout firms, flush with giant piles of cash, have been on a deal-making tear. Software, with its steady cash flows, has been a particularly hot area.

Anaplan would be the latest big software company in a take-private deal. In January, Vista Equity Partners and the private-equity arm of Elliott Management Corp. agreed to buy

Citrix Systems Inc.

for about $13 billion. And in November, Advent International Corp. and Permira announced a $12 billion deal for McAfee Corp. Other big LBOs that have been in the works include one for TV-ratings company

Nielsen Holdings

PLC that could be worth about $15 billion including debt, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

Last week, activist investor Sachem Head Capital Management LP disclosed a nearly 5% stake in Anaplan. Sachem Head is part of a group of activists that together hold an even larger stake, according to a filing.

With offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Miami, Thoma Bravo specializes in buying business-software companies and helping spur their growth. The firm, which manages more than $103 billion, has been doing bigger deals of late. Last year, it bought Proofpoint Inc. in a transaction worth more than $10 billion.

Write to Miriam Gottfried at Miriam.Gottfried@wsj.com