The directors of Warrington-based robotics software company Blue Prism Group said on Wednesday they have agreed to a £1.24 billion takeover offer from Connecticut-based financial services software firm SS&C Technologies and withdrawn their support for a bid from rival suitor Vista Equity.
SS&C’s cash offer of £12.75 per Blue Prism share is higher than its earlier £12 approach and is above US private equity firm Vista’s final offer of £12.50.
However, Blue Prism shares have now risen to around £13.32 — suggesting some investors expect the bidding war to continue.
Blue Prism chairman and CEO Jason Kingdon said: “Blue Prism was an early pioneer in building the RPA sector and today is a market leader, working with over 2,000 organisations worldwide.
“While as a standalone enterprise we have built an impressive business, the opportunity presented to combine Blue Prism with SS&C will bring us access to significant capital resources and investment in R&D alongside access to SS&C’s extensive 18,000 customers.
“The combination ensures that we remain at the forefront of the next generation of intelligent automation and can continue to provide innovative products and services.
“SS&C also recognises the hard work of the Blue Prism team over the years and understands the value of the skills, experience and commitment of our employees.
“The process the Blue Prism board over the last five months has undertaken has been extensive, and we believe this offer represents strong, immediate value for our shareholders and benefits our wider stakeholders.”
SS&C chairman and CEO Bill Stone said: “A core part of SS&C’s value proposition is to drive efficiencies for our customers, and Blue Prism is another lever for our customers to gain those efficiencies.
“In conjunction with Chorus, SS&C’s intelligent automation system, Blue Prism will accelerate value delivery through automation of increasingly complex tasks.
“Blue Prism will also be able to be used internally across our company to further optimize our operating models in some of our core services and corporate functions that will help deliver more value to our customers and shareholders.
“SS&C has a long history of acquiring high quality businesses and improving their revenue growth profile and cost structure.
“With SS&C’s management focus, global salesforce, talented development organization, and significant capital resources, Blue Prism can reach new heights with their intelligent digital workforce.
“The combination of Blue Prism’s market leading RPA solutions, and SS&C’s top position in the financial services and healthcare industries, we believe, will yield significantly improved results.”