Australian construction software company Aconex saw its share price surge by 45% yesterday after its board unanimously backed an all-cash takeover offer of US$1.2bn from US software giant Oracle.
If the deal goes ahead, Oracle will acquire all the shares of the Melbourne-based company at a 47% premium to their pre-offer price.
Leigh Jasper, Aconex’s chief executive, said: “The Aconex and Oracle businesses are highly complementary in terms of vision, product, people and geography.” [https://www.aconex.com/news/press-release/oracle-agrees-to-buy-aconex]
Jasper said he remained committed to the business and was “excited about the opportunity to advance our collective vision on a larger scale”.
Mike Scilia, Oracle’s general manager for construction, said the addition of Aconex would take the company closer to its vision of offering the most comprehensive cloud-based project management solution for the construction industry.
Aconex was founded in 2000 by Jasper and Rob Phillpot as a provider of project and document management software. It was listed in December 2014 and has grown to 47 offices across 23 countries.
In January of this year its share price fell almost 50% following a warning that its pre-tax profit would be in the US$12m to $14 million, compared with an earlier estimate of $17m to $19m range. The company blamed uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the election of Donald Trump for the fall.
Image: Leigh Jaspers, Aconex’s co-founder (YouTube)
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