Lexington, KY – When it was announced in early May that Lexington-based Lexmark would offer to buy outstanding stock in Swedish software company ReadSoft, it was assumed the sale would be completed by the end of the year’s second quarter. Those plans have been left in the lurch as Lexmark is in a battle with the British subsidiary of an Ohio software company to buy ReadSoft.
Nearly a month and a half after Lexmark announced it would offer $6.11 cash for Series A and B shares of the Swedish company that automates business processes, both on site and in the cloud, Hyland UK, part of the Westlake, Ohio-based Hyland Software, offered 7 percent more than Lexmark for the same shares. Lexmark’s initial deal with ReadSoft forbade the company from discussing a competing deal with another party unless it was 7 percent or greater than the price offered by Lexmark.
Within 24-hours, Lexmark countered with an offer of $194 million, up from its initial $182 million total for outstanding stock. The offer was once again eclipsed yesterday with Hyland UK offering 4.6 percent more, totaling 45.00 Swedish Krona (SEK) per share as opposed the SEK 43.00 that Lexmark’s second offer represented, according to a release from ReadSoft.
The new offer from Hyland UK is a 133 percent premium over what ReadSoft’s Class B stock closed the day before Lexmark’s original announcement in early May at just SEK 18.40 per share, according to a release from Lexmark.
"We acknowledge Hyland Software's latest offer for ReadSoft and are evaluating an appropriate response," Lexmark’s Chairman and CEO Paul Rooke said in a release. "We believe that Lexmark is strategically the best home for ReadSoft and its employees.”
This is the first time Lexmark has sought to purchase a publicly traded company, according to Lexmark spokesman Jerry Grasso, and the first time since Lexmark began acquiring software firms to transition from being a printer company to a document solutions company with its 2010 purchase of Perceptive Software that it has encountered a bidding war.
"Lexmark is evaluating all of its options and will discuss with ReadSoft's Board of Directors at the appropriate time," Rooke added in his statement.
The ReadSoft software that the two companies have been fighting for captures, classifies, sorts and routes both hard copy and digital business documents, provides approval workflows and extracts and verifies relevant data before depositing it into a customer's systems of record.
The company’s applications include invoice processing, accounts payable automation and sales order processing. Its software also automates a wide variety of business processes like claims, applications and questionnaire processing across a number of industry segments.
ReadSoft operates in 70 countries and has more than 12,000 customers worldwide including BASF, Siemens, Bosch, HSBC, ING, Lego and John Deere. The company has 625 employees and reported revenue of $117 million in 2013.
If successfully purchased by Lexmark, ReadSoft would be absorbed by Lexmark’s suburban Kansas City-based Perceptive Software.
A release from ReadSoft said the company’s board of directors plans to announce its decision on the offer within two weeks of the end of Hyland’s offer to buy outstanding shares on Sept. 10.