(By Balaseshan) Versant Corp. (NASDAQ: VSNT), a provider of data management software, said it has agreed to be bought by Actian Corp. for $13.00 per share in cash, a 10.2% premium from previous close.
Versant's Board of Directors unanimously approved the Actian Acquisition Agreement and authorized termination of Versant's previously announced merger agreement with Unicom Systems Inc. in accordance with the terms of that agreement. The aggregate purchase price of the recent transaction is about $37 million.
The purchase price represents a premium of about 13% over the $11.50 per share price contemplated by the prior merger agreement with Unicom, and a 32% premium over Versant's closing price of $9.85 per share on the last trading day before announcement of the prior agreement with Unicom.
Prior to entering into the Actian Acquisition Agreement, Versant terminated its previous merger agreement with Unicom and, in accordance with that agreement, Versant will pay a termination fee of $750,000.
The Actian Acquisition Agreement provides for the merger of Versant with a subsidiary of Actian, and the transaction is currently expected to close in Versant's first fiscal quarter ending January 31, 2013. Following completion of the transaction, Versant will be wholly owned by Actian and its stock will no longer trade on the NASDAQ.
"Versant and Actian have complementary businesses. We believe we can leverage our combined strength in managing complex information in environments that demand high performance to lead in the business intelligence and analytics market. This merger will also deliver premium value and liquidity to Versant's shareholders," said Bernhard Woebker, Versant's President and Chief Executive Officer.
Actian enables organizations to transform Big Data into business value with data management solutions to transact, analyze, and take automated action across their business operations. Actian is headquartered in California with offices in New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Melbourne.
VSNT is trading up 8.64% at $12.82 on Wednesday. The stock has been trading between $8.50 and $12.95 for the past 52 weeks.