SoftwareOne has opted to remain a standalone company after snubbing yet another bid from Bain Capital.
The software and cloud solutions provider said it is “confident of its positioning in a large and fast-growing market” as it announced that its strategic review has ended in no sale.
The SIX Swiss-listed outfit launched the strategic review last summer after turning down two initial bids from Bain, in June and in July (for 18.5 Swiss francs per share and 19.5-20.5 Swiss francs per share, respectively).
The approaches valued the 9,000-employee Microsoft partner at 2.93bn Swiss francs and 3.2bn Swiss francs, respectively.
‘Does not adequately reflect fundamental value of SoftwareOne’
SoftwareOne has concluded the strategic review after turning down another “non-binding value indication” of 18.80 Swiss francs per share from Bain, it announced this morning.
The offer “neither provides sufficient certainty nor adequately reflects the fundamental value of SoftwareOne, and is therefore not in the best interest of the company and all stakeholders”, SoftwareOne said.
“The Board is confident in SoftwareOne’s positioning in a large and fast-growing market, underpinned by strong growth momentum, and that the company has the right leadership team and strategy in place to achieve its ambitions,” it said.
“As such, the Board is convinced that SoftwareOne is well placed to create shareholder value as a standalone public company.”
In October, Canalys analyst Sheena Wee held up SoftwareOne’s double rebuff of Bain as a prime example of the mismatch between buyer and seller expectations that currently exists, characterising it as a “disjointed valuation market”.
SoftwareOne cut its 2023 growth guidance in November amid “increasingly volatile conditions”. Its mid-term guidance of “mid-teens revenue growth” remains unaffected, CEO Brian Duffy (pictured above) stressed at the time, however.
In this morning’s announcement, SoftwareOne reconfirmed that 2023 guidance.
SoftwareOne’s strategic review resulted in multiple bids being placed in October, according to this Reuters report. Reuters then reported in December that Bain was the last bidder left standing.
