According to Bloomberg Business, private equity firm Hg Capital is in advanced talks to acquire financial software maker OneStream Inc. A deal could be announced within days, valuing the Birmingham, Michigan-based company. OneStream’s shares, which have sunk 35% over the past year, rose 3.8% on the news Monday, giving it a market value of about $4.5 billion. The company, which went public in 2024 raising $563.5 million, counts 18% of the Fortune 500 as customers. Shareholders like KKR & Co. would be part of the transaction. Hg, which manages over $100 billion in assets, declined to comment, while OneStream didn’t immediately respond.
The Logic Behind the Buyout
So why is Hg swooping in now? Here’s the thing: OneStream’s stock performance since its 2024 IPO has been pretty rough. A 35% drop in a year is a clear signal that public markets aren’t valuing the company the way its backers hoped. For a private equity firm like Hg, this is classic territory. They see a fundamentally solid business—with legit Fortune 500 traction—trading at what they likely believe is a discount. They can take it private, away from quarterly earnings pressure, streamline operations, invest in growth, and probably aim for a re-listing or sale to a strategic buyer like an Oracle or SAP down the line. It’s the old PE playbook, but it only works if the underlying software is strong.
Winners, Losers, and the Competitive Squeeze
If this deal goes through, the immediate winners are OneStream’s early investors and employees with equity who get a liquidity event at a premium to the recent beaten-down share price. But what about the competitive landscape? OneStream plays in the crowded financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software space, up against giants like Workday Adaptive Planning, Oracle NetSuite, and Anaplan. Being private and backed by a deep-pocketed owner like Hg could let OneStream compete more aggressively on product development and maybe even pricing, without having to justify every spend to public market analysts. That could squeeze mid-tier competitors. On the flip side, Hg’s portfolio includes other software giants like Visma. I wonder if they see synergies there, or if this is just another standalone asset in their vast collection.
A Trend or an Isolated Case?
Now, does this signal a wave of PE buyouts in enterprise software? Maybe. We’re in a weird market where great software companies can have lousy stock prices. For firms sitting on mountains of dry powder—Hg’s “life at Hg” page certainly paints a picture of scale and stability—this is a potential shopping season. But it’s not for everyone. Hg specifically has a massive track record in B2B software, so this isn’t a random gamble for them. It’s right in their wheelhouse. Basically, they’re betting they can run this company better as a private entity than the public markets can. For other struggling SaaS IPOs, this deal will be one to watch very closely. Will they get similar calls?
