Acquisition
18/05/2022 07:00
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RNS Number : 9061L Sopheon PLC 18 May 2022
SOPHEON PLC
("Sopheon" or the "Company")
Acquisition of Solverboard accelerates Sopheon growth strategy
Sopheon (https://www.sopheon.com/) , the leading international provider of
software and services for Enterprise Innovation Management
(https://www.sopheon.com/software/) solutions, is pleased to announce the
acquisition of the business and assets of Solverlink Limited (trading as
Solverboard® "Solverboard"), a UK based cloud-based business specializing in
the front-end of innovation management.
Solverboard's multi-tenant, SaaS product is used by both individual innovators
and product professionals, and is sold using an online, product-led growth
("PLG") model. Solverboard brings the innovation and product needs of
professionals together so that they can focus on addressing front-end
innovation challenges, increasing time to value by helping companies
dynamically find, align, test and deliver the best innovation and product
ideas from employees and customers.
Rationale for acquisition
In our last annual report we noted that Sopheon will be introducing new
cloud-based applications this year, providing value to individual and
workgroup users in the corporate ecosystem, alongside and integrated with the
group's Accolade® enterprise software. These new applications are intended to
drive lead generation for Accolade, as well as being stand-alone solutions
that solve individual and workgroup productivity needs. The acquisition of
Solverboard brings PLG capabilities into Sopheon more rapidly than previously
planned, and accelerates this SaaS strategy from both functional and
go-to-market perspectives. Sopheon will continue to offer a free version of
Solverboard and a paid subscription with more advanced features. We expect to
introduce additional Sopheon products to be sold through the Solverboard
channel by the end of the year.
Deal structure and consideration
The transaction is structured as a business and asset purchase. Initial
consideration comprises £500,000 in cash and £250,000 in shares issued at
£6 per share. An additional, contingent deferred earn-out of up to £1.55
million is payable over the next two years, linked to Annual Recurring Revenue
("ARR") targets. The earn-out consideration will be satisfied by up to
£900,000 in shares issued at £6 per share, with the balance in cash. The
cash consideration component of the acquisition is being funded out of
existing and healthy cash resources. The share consideration elements are
subject to lock in and orderly market restrictions.
Since inception, over £3 million has been invested in the Solverboard
business and products by Solverboard's founders and management. A new platform
was launched in September 2021, and has secured a number of customers to its
free tier but is yet to generate material revenues. The costs of the business
will be absorbed into Sopheon's current operating plans, through the
reprioritization of planned spend.
Greg Coticchia, CEO of Sopheon said: "This acquisition is another step in our
mission to provide the most comprehensive innovation system for the world's
best companies. As well as its functional capabilities in the front end of
innovation, adding Solverboard's expertise immediately brings us deep PLG
go-to-market capabilities that were on our development roadmap. This is the
second acquisition of a cloud-native, multi-tenant SaaS solution by Sopheon in
the past six months. We look to the Solverboard and ROI Blueprints
acquisitions to accelerate Sopheon's shift to a pure play SaaS model and
associated ARR growth."
Solverboard founder and CEO Phil Atherton added: "It is very exciting to
become part of Sopheon, a leader in the Enterprise Innovation Management
space. Our companies are a perfect fit in vision, purpose and culture.
Solverboard's product-led "go to market" capability for innovation and product
professionals is highly complementary to Sopheon's market-leading sales-led
enterprise go-to-market capability. We believe this combination will be pretty
unique in our sector."
Allotment and issue of shares
Sopheon has allotted 41,667 new Ordinary Shares of 20 pence each in the
Company to satisfy the share component of the initial consideration.
Application will be made for the new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading
on AIM and dealings are expected to commence on 23 May 2022. The new Ordinary
Shares will rank pari-passu with the Company's existing Ordinary Shares. The
total number of Ordinary Shares in issue following Admission will be
10,594,992. The Company does not hold any shares in treasury. Accordingly, the
figure of 10,594,992 may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the
calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their
interest in, or a change to their interest in the Company under the FCA's
Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.
For further information contact:
Andy Michuda (Executive Chairman) Sopheon plc + 44 (0) 1276 919 560
Arif Karimjee (CFO)
Carl Holmes/Edward Whiley (Corporate Finance) finnCap + 44 (0) 20 7220 0500
Alice Lane / Sunila de Silva (ECM)
Sopheon, Accolade and Solverboard are trademarks of Sopheon plc. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
About Sopheon. Sopheon (LSE: SPE) partners with customers to provide complete
enterprise innovation management
(https://www.sopheon.com/?utm_source=PressRelease&utm_medium=Press&utm_campaign=PR-Gen)
solutions including software, expertise, and best practices, that enable them
to achieve exceptional long-term revenue growth and profitability. Sopheon
provides unique, fully-integrated coverage for the entire innovation
management and new product development lifecycle, including strategic
innovation planning, roadmapping, idea and concept development, process and
project management, portfolio management and resource planning. Sopheon's
solutions have been implemented by over 200 customers with over 60,000 users
in over 50 countries. Sopheon is listed on AIM, operated by the London Stock
Exchange. For more information, please visit www.sopheon.com
(http://www.sopheon.com) .
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