Thoma Bravo bought Anaplan for $ 10.7 billion

Based in San Francisco, Anaplan makes software that helps businesses plan by modeling for different forecast results. The company has more than 1,900 customers worldwide, including Coca-Cola Co., Shell PLC and VMware Inc.,

VMW 1.34%

who use their 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 companies, with huge piles of cash, are done on a deal. Software, with its constant cash flow, was a particularly hot area.

Anaplan would be the last major software company in a take-private deal. In January, Vista Equity Partners joined the private equity arm of Elliott Management Corp. agreed to purchase Citrix Systems Inc.

for about $ 13 billion. And in November, Advent International Corp. and Permira announced a $ 12 billion deal for McAfee Corp. Other major LBOs that were in the works include one for TV rating agency Nielsen Holdings PLC, which is worth about $ 15 billion, including debt, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Last week, activist investor Sachem Head Capital Management LP revealed a nearly 5% stake in Anaplan. Sachem Head is part of a group of activists who together have an even larger shareholder, according to a dossier.

With offices in San Francisco, Chicago and Miami, Thoma Bravo specializes in acquiring business software companies and helping stimulate their growth. The company, which managed more than $ 103 billion, later made bigger dealers. Last year, it launched Proofpoint Inc. in a transaction worth more than $ 10 billion.

Sign up Miriam Gottfried at Miriam.Gottfried@wsj.com