Switzerland's SoftwareOne rejects Bain Capital's lowered $3.5B takeover offer

Following months of discussions and a reported bidding war, the board of Switzerland’s SoftwareOne has rejected private equity firm Bain Capital’s offer that saw a proposed valuation of 18.8 CHF per share ($3.5 billion).

Comprised of 29 group companies, SoftwareOne offers software and cloud solutions and counts AWS, Adobe, VMware, and Autodesk among its 7,500 partner organisations.

In July 2023 SoftwareOne engaged JPMorgan to conduct a strategic review of the business following the rejection of a second, increased takeover offer from Bain Capital that saw the company valued at as much as 20.5 CHF per share ($3.8 billion).

According to a statement released by SoftwareOne on Monday, the company did not believe that Bain Capital’s offer “provides sufficient certainty nor adequately reflects the fundamental value of SoftwareOne, and is therefore not in the best interest of the company and all stakeholders.”

SoftwareOne’s trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange is down by nearly 10 percent today at approximately 14.5 CHF ($17) per share.

Lead image: Photo by Markus Spiske