The next ‘big data’ buying binge?
Posted by Ben Kolada on October 6, 2011
Contact: Ben Kolada After last year’s storage and data-warehousing feeding frenzies provided outsized returns to target companies’ venture investors, a new breed of ‘big data’ vendors is renewing venture capitalists’ interests. So-called NoSQL and NewSQL database firms had already been catching investors’ attention, securing millions of additional dollars in VC financing. Eventually, we expect the [...]
A renaissance of PE interest in Renaissance
Posted by Brenon Daly on September 29, 2011
Contact: Brenon Daly In 2010, PLATO Learning went private in a relatively straightforward process that took just two months from Thoma Bravo’s announcement of the leveraged buyout (LBO) of the online education vendor to the close of it. Now, privately held PLATO is drawing out – and making more expensive – the LBO of fellow [...]
S1 is out of one deal, still in a second deal
Posted by Brenon Daly on September 20, 2011
Contact: Brenon Daly We now know that S1 Corp won’t be a buyer, but whether the financial software company is a seller remains an open question. Late last week, S1 scrapped its three-month-old plans to acquire Fundtech, pocketing an $11.9m breakup fee for its trouble. (That represents a not-insignificant windfall for a company that has [...]
Microsemi opens the hostilities
Posted by Brenon Daly on August 18, 2011
Contact: Brenon Daly In a bear-hug letter last month, Microsemi warned fellow chipmaker Zarlink Semiconductor that it was ready to ‘take all necessary actions’ to consolidate the Canadian company. On Wednesday, that came to pass: Microsemi said it would bypass Zarlink’s board, which shot down the unsolicited offer, and take its $549m all-cash bid directly [...]
ACI looks to crash S1′s wedding
Posted by Brenon Daly on July 26, 2011
Contact: Brenon Daly Just a month after announcing its largest-ever acquisition, S1 Corp has found itself unexpectedly (and perhaps unwelcomely) on the other end of a potential transaction. The payments software maker agreed in late June to acquire Fundtech in a stock swap valued at $326m. On Tuesday, ACI Worldwide sought to play the spoiler [...]
Apax goes double or nothing in big software bet
Posted by Brenon Daly on April 5, 2011
Contact: Brenon Daly Apax Partners is going double or nothing in the latest addition to its software portfolio. The buyout firm plans to spend a total of $2bn to put together a pair of old-line ERP vendors, Epicor Software and Activant Solutions. And it is very much a ‘paired’ deal. In fact, according to terms, [...]
Not pretty, but it’s done at Novell
Posted by Brenon Daly on November 22, 2010
Contact: Brenon Daly After holding out for more than eight months, Novell finally accepted on Monday a $2.2bn buyout offer from private equity-backed Attachmate. From the outside, it looks like a case where the buyer – or maybe more accurately, the hedge fund that put the company in play – simply wore down Novell. Under [...]
Looking at Lawson
Posted by Brenon Daly on June 16, 2010
Contact: Brenon Daly What was shaping up as an explosive showdown between Carl Icahn and Genzyme has been defused ahead of today’s board meeting at the biotech company. By adding two nominees selected by Icahn to the expanded board of directors, Genzyme avoided the full-blown proxy fight that had been brewing. With that matter settled, [...]
Emulex goes from defense to offense
Posted by Brenon Daly on June 9, 2010
Contact: Brenon Daly This time a year ago, Emulex was stiff-arming an unwelcome suitor. Now, it is warmly embracing another company. Emulex said Monday that it will acquire ServerEngines for $159m in cash and stock. It will hand over about $78m in cash and eight million shares, which were valued at $81m based on Emulex’s [...]
Sources: a take-private for Double-Take
Posted by Brenon Daly on May 10, 2010
Contact: Brenon Daly The final bidders for Double-Take Software have narrowed to three buyout shops, and a purchase of the file-replication software vendor could be announced within the next two weeks, we have learned. The company said a month ago that an undisclosed bidder had approached it about a possible transaction. A number of sources [...]
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