Switzerland's SoftwareOne nears bid for Norway's Crayon, Bloomberg News reports

SoftwareOne Holding AG

12/12/2024 16:34

Dec 12 (Reuters) - Swiss technology firm SoftwareOne
Holding  SWON.S , which is currently in talks to sell itself, is
nearing a deal to acquire Norwegian rival Crayon Group Holding
 CRAYN.OL , Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
    The Swiss company is in the final stages of presenting a bid
for Crayon and intends to take the company private, the report
said, citing sources, adding that a deal could be announced as
early as this month.
    SoftwareOne plans to finance the acquisition primarily or
entirely with stock, according to the report.
    Its shares were down nearly 12% at 6.39 Swiss francs ($7.18)
after the Bloomberg report, resulting in a company a valuation
of about 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.12 billion).
    Meanwhile, Crayon Group rose by 8.5% at 137.7 crowns, giving
it a market capitalization of about 12.16 billion crowns ($1.09
billion).
    SoftwareOne declined to comment, while Crayon did not
immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
    Bloomberg News first reported in September that SoftwareOne
was exploring a potential merger with Crayon Group.
    SoftwareOne, which helps customers buy and manage software
from other providers, is also in talks to go private and said
last month it had set a deadline to conclude the discussions.
    The Swiss company has been in talks with potential buyers,
including private equity company Apax Partners, to take itself
private.

($1 = 11.1356 Norwegian crowns)
($1 = 0.8899 Swiss francs)

 (Reporting by Kritika Singh in Bengaluru and additional
reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
 ((Kritika.Singh@thomsonreuters.com;))