eCommerce tech provider Attraqt Group has been acquired in a deal worth £63 million.
The provider of AI-powered search, merchandising and recommendation software, listed on the London Stock Exchange, has been snapped up by US company Crownpeak.
Crownpeak created a bidco shell company for the purposes of the acquisition but will take London-based Attraqt, which has made a series of strategic acquisitions, private.
The accepted offer of 30 pence in cash per share represents a premium of 71% to the closing price of 17.50p on 28th September.
Attraqt’s shares – which peaked at 46.5p in March 2021 – traded just above 30p for the first four months of the year but dropped as capital markets fell worldwide.
The acquisition is expected to complete during the fourth quarter of 2022.
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Founded in 2001, Crownpeak operates a cloud-native platform enabling more than 1,000 brands to deliver personalised digital experiences across all content channels through content management.
“The acquisition brings Crownpeak greater scale in the United Kingdom and European markets… Attraqt presents a platform from which to grow its geographic reach, with both regions being key strategic focus areas of both organic and future acquisitive growth,” said the company.
“Crownpeak believes that in order to maximise its future potential, Attraqt would be better suited to a private company environment, where initiatives to improve the performance of the business can be implemented effectively, with appropriate support, capital and assistance from Crownpeak, free from the requirement to meet the public equity market’s shorter-term reporting requirements and expectations, and the costs, constraints and distractions associated with being a publicly traded company.”
Tom Crawford, chairman of Attraqt, said: “We are proud of the significant progress that Attraqt has made over the last few years, particularly since the acquisition of Fredhopper in 2017, and Early Birds more recently in 2019.
“Whilst we remain excited about the prospects for the business on a standalone basis, we have been in discussions with Crownpeak and received a proposal that we believe is compelling for all of our stakeholders.”