Francisco Partners, a reputed U.S. based equity firm, is likely to acquire Verifone Systems Inc. for a sum of USD 2.58 billion in an all-cash deal. According to Verifone Systems, the purchase agreement is evaluated at nearly USD 3.4 billion, which also includes debt along with a premium of nearly 54% on Verifone’s estimated closing share price of USD 15 as on Monday. Francisco has also announced to pay USD 23.04 in cash for each share of Verifone.
The deal is likely to culminate during the second half of this year with Verifone’s board of directors voting in favor of the contract. The merger pact also includes a “go-shop” period in its terms & conditions. According to this provision, the board of directors & advisors at Verifone are granted the choice of opting for other alternative offers from various firms till May 24th of 2018.
For the record, the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, a major investment management service provider for British Columbia’s Public sector in Canada, is a part of Francisco Partners. As per the key officials of Verifone Systems, the value equity of the merger pact was assessed on 112.2 million outstanding diluted stocks as of 31st January 2018.
In the past, Verifone Systems had incidentally faced tremendous competition from renowned Silicon Valley startups such as Square Inc., a mobile payment firm based in the U.S. that offers enhanced software services at reasonable costs to its customers. At the end of the last year, Verifone Systems even sold its taxi ad business for nearly USD 30 million in the face of the competition from ride sharing giants such as Lyft and Uber.
As per authentic reports, with the announcement of Verifone’s acquisition, close to 53% of its shares soared high in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange.