Brace Yourselves, Backup Exec And InfoScale Users, Cloud Software Group Just Acquired Your Tools

The Cloud Software Group has acquired data management tools vendor Arctera, the owner of Backup Exec and other data management tools.

Cloud Software Group (CSG) formed after the 2022 merger of Citrix and Tibco. The company’s CEO is Tom Krause, a former CFO of Broadcom where he helped to devise the strategy that saw the company create an enterprise software business by acquiring Computer Associates, Symantec, and VMware. Krause took a break from CSG earlier this year to work with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and serve as Fiscal Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury.

Past acquisitions involving Krause typically see substantial layoffs, a slowdown in product development, major changes to software licenses that increase prices, a focus on large enterprise users, a lot less love for small and medium businesses, less responsive support, and reducing the number of authorized channel partners.

In a press release, Krause described the acquisition as “an exciting milestone for Cloud Software Group and an important step forward in our long-term growth strategy.”

“We have a strong track record of continuing to invest in our portfolio of leading software brands, as evidenced by our work to improve profitability and long-term sustainability of the Citrix and TIBCO businesses,” he added, before remarking “We aim to acquire at-scale enterprise-focused software businesses that provide proven mission-critical capabilities and high value to public and private sector customers while also ensuring they’re a good fit to operate within our proven Cloud Software Group model.”

Which sounds a lot like CSG has its eye on more acquisitions.

• Cloud Software Group and Microsoft pledge another eight years of co-opetition
• Citrix and Tibco staff report sweeping redundancies
• Citrix finds new use for virtualization: Avoiding PC price hikes caused by tariffs
• Citrix signals return to the mainstream hypervisor market with a product it says isn’t quite ready for the job

Krause also said “We have long admired Arctera’s business” which is a little odd as the company only came into existence in 2024 when Veritas sold its NetBackup business to Cohesity in 2024. Products Cohesity didn’t want, such as Backup Exec, and the InfoScale storage management tool, ended up at Arctera.

Krause said he is “confident that Arctera’s portfolio of Data Resilience, Data Compliance and Data Protection products will be a natural complementary addition to Cloud Software Group. We look forward to expanding the services and products we provide for both sets of customers through this acquisition.”

Once the deal closes, which CSG expects will happen in the final quarter of 2025, Arctera will operate as a standalone business unit within the Group. Again, that’s CSG’s usual modus operandi. ®