Vista Equity seeks buyer for Bullhorn

Vista Equity Partners has put Bullhorn Inc up for sale after a five-year hold, two sources said.

Vista tapped Atlas Technology Group to advise on the sale, the people said.

Founded in 1999, Bullhorn provides cloud-based customer relationship management and operations software for the staffing industry. The Boston company employs more than 600 people. It produces $27 million of EBITDA on $120 million of revenue, one of the sources said. Bullhorn is expected to sell for a mid-teen multiple, one of the sources said.

Indications of interest were due Sept. 26, one person said.

Vista acquired Bullhorn in June 2012. Terms weren’t disclosed but the Wall Street Journal valued the deal in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Before its sale to Vista, Bullhorn raised $26 million in Series D funding from General Catalyst and Highland Capital Partners in 2008.

Bullhorn earlier this month acquired Connexys, a Dutch provider of recruitment software for mainland Europe, from Main Capital. The company also bought MaxHire Solutions and Sendouts in November 2012.

Vista used its first Foundation Fund, which invested in small-cap software companies, to buy Bullhorn. Vista Foundation Fund I collected $400 million in 2010. The firm closed Foundation Fund II on $1.1 billion in 2013. The third iteration of the Foundation Fund closed earlier this year on $2.5 billion, Buyouts said.

Executives for Vista, Bullhorn and Atlas could not be reached for comment.

Action Item: Contact Art Papas, Bullhorn’s CEO, at +1 617-478-9100.

Photo of Texas longhorn steer in a rural Utah field courtesy of johnnya123/iStock/Getty Images