Blue Prism has agreed to a takeover offer from US private equity firm Vista Equity Partners that values the UK-listed software company at £1.1 billion (about $1.5 billion).
The 1,125 pence-per-share cash offer represents a 35.2% premium to the company’s closing price prior to the announcement of a potential deal.
Founded in 2001, Blue Prism develops software that supports back-office automation and other tasks, and is recognized as one of the early entrants to the robotic process-automation space.
The company went public in 2015, and since then its annual revenue has grown from around £6 million to as much as £160 million in 2021.
Blue Prism also attracted interest from TPG. The deal is the latest in a series involving UK-listed companies being targeted by US private equity firms. Clayton, Dubilier & Rice and Fortress Investment Group are currently in competition to acquire supermarket chain Morrisons, while Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners recently upped its bid for listed waste management company Augean.
The deal also comes amid a record year for the number of PE deals involving automation software companies in Europe. According to PitchBook data, $1.4 billion has been invested across 66 deals so far this year.
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