Struggling database company MariaDB is reportedly considering a move to go private in a deal valued at $37 million

The “non-binding” proposal emerges 14 months following MariaDB’s initial public offering through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC).

MariaDB is the subject of another potential takeover bid, as the company behind the eponymous open source relational database management system (RDBMS) confirmed it had received a provisional offer from California-based K1 Investment Management.

K1 quietly revealed on Friday that it had tabled what is known as an “unsolicited non-binding indicative proposal” for MariaDB, which — as its name suggests — is a non-binding exploratory offer that may change depending on how negotiations progress in the coming weeks. This proposal includes buying all MariaDB stock in MariaDB at a price of $0.55 per share, which would amount roughly to $37 million based on the company’s February 5 closing valuation, though it has yet to determine what form this offer will take.

The news comes amid major changes and upheaval at the company which has seen a new CEO enter the fray and a sizeable downsizing endeavor as it offloaded both its database-as-a-service and geospatial businesses.

Forked off

MariaDB originated as a fork of MySQL 15 years ago, sparked by concerns about MySQL’s independence following Oracle’s series of billion-dollar acquisitions that effectively led to Oracle’s ownership of MySQL in 2009. Even today, MariaDB remains a popular “drop-in” replacement for those seeking a fully open-source alternative to MySQL, with many prominent companies relying on it for data storage and manipulation across their applications.

The commercial arm behind MariaDB has secured approximately $230 million in venture funding over the years to enhance the core project with premium features and services. In December 2022, MariaDB went public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). However, like many SPAC-based IPOs, MariaDB’s public debut has not been without challenges. After opening with a market capitalization of $445 million, significantly lower than its previous private enterprise value of $672 million at its Series D round, the company’s market value has steadily declined. Since the beginning of the year, MariaDB’s market cap has hovered just above the $10 million mark.

The primary factor contributing to this downward trend has been a series of disappointing earnings reports. In September, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) notified MariaDB that it was not in compliance with listing rules, which require a company’s average global market capitalization to remain above $50 million over a consecutive 30-day trading period.