Basware today announced that it had terminated discussions with Tradeshift in relation to a possible offer to acquire all shares in Basware. These two leaders in the procure-to-pay space had been in discussions for months about a possible union between the two organizations. When reached about today’s news, Basware’s CEO, Vesa Tykkyläinen, told Ardent Partners,“The market opportunity ahead of Basware is huge – networked source to pay is estimated to have an annual potential of EU 15 billion. I strongly believe that Basware has the ability to be the leader in our industry and I am very pleased that our Board of Directors has made the decision to continue to be a publicly listed company.”
Additionally, Ilkka Sihvo, Chairman of the Board of Basware Corporation added that “Basware also entered into a standstill agreement with Tradeshift, under which Tradeshift is prohibited from, among other things, directly or indirectly acquiring any shares in Basware or making any public tender offer or other offer to acquire shares in Basware until November 12, 2019. This standstill agreement is subject to customary exceptions including (amongst others) the receipt of a recommendation from the Board of Basware and a third party unaffiliated with Tradeshift announcing a public tender offer for all shares in Basware.”
While the Tradeshift – Basware transaction didn’t materialize, both companies remain bullish on the market and their abilities to grow and deliver positive results. Today’s news aside, merger and acquisition activity in the Procure-to-Pay space has been heating up over the past couple of years and Ardent Partners expects the consolidation in the market to continue. Some of the recent deal activity in the space include Corcentric’s acquisition of Determine, Jaggaer’s acquisition of Bravo, AvidXchange’s acquisition of Ariett, and Coupa’s recent acquisitions of several companies. One thing is clear, Procure-to-Pay solution providers are looking for ways to strengthen both their install base and solution offerings in order to capture a larger portion of market share.
More news on this as it develops.
