SoftwareOne to remain independent as it rejects 3.2 billion bid

SoftwareOne to remain independent as it rejects 3.2 billion bid

SoftwareOne has rejected a 3.2 billion euro bid by Bain Capital. Since July, the company has been engaged in a strategic review, pondering the possibility of the proposed acquisition. Now, it has concluded that it prefers to remain independent.

Bain Capital had offered 18.50 Swiss francs per share in June, then raised that to 20.50 francs per share in July. The earlier offer thus constituted the equivalent of 2.9 billion dollars, which later grew to 3.2 billion.

A large portion of shareholders at the time would have supported the proposed takeover.

Decline in value

Gradually, however, the value of SoftwareOne fell by 13 percent across the second half of 2023. Since then, Bain Capital’s offer dropped as well, although it was still 500 million dollars higher than the market value of 2.8 billion dollars. SoftwareOne’s board of directors has now unanimously rejected that, the company announced. The offer was not binding, but SoftwareOne’s announcement, its rejection appears to put a definite end to any acquisition plans.

CEO Brian Duffy and CFO Rodolfo Savitzky will present their 2023 results on Feb. 15.

In any case, SoftwareOne’s ambitions remain unchanged. For example, it has earlier stated it is the “partner of choice to promote and support cloud services in governments.” The Swiss company is active in a variety of sectors and works with parties such as AWS, Microsoft and IBM.

Also read: SoftwareONE works towards a full-fletched security platform