Lexmark International, Inc. is acquiring the customer management software firm Kofax Ltd.
Lexmark will buy all of the outstanding shares of Kofax for $11.00 per share, an enterprise value of about $1 billion – net of cash acquired.
The purchase is a 47 percent premium to Kofax’s Tuesday closing price of $7.50.
Lexington-based Lexmark will fund the buyout with non-US cash on hand and credit facility programs.
The Board of Directors at Kofax were unanimously in favor of the merger agreement. Shareholders who own about a quarter of Kofax stock are expected to vote in favor of the deal.
Once the acquisition is complete then Lexmark will almost double the size of its enterprise software business to an approximately $700 million business.
Lexmark focuses on printing solutions and products, including laser, inkjet, dot matrix printers and supplies for the office and home.
CEO of Lexmark said that the acquisition of Kofax “enhances our best-in-class offerings”
Paul Rooke, Lexmark chairman and chief executive officer, said:
“The acquisition of Kofax enhances our best-in-class offerings so our customers can capture, manage, access, and act upon their information more efficiently, and extends Lexmark into the high-growth smart process applications market,”
“Our customers will have a breadth of hardware and software solutions that connect their information silos and automate their business processes – enabling them to access the most relevant information at the moment they need it to drive business forward.”
Lexmark will expand reach into the midmarket
Rooke added:
“Kofax accelerates Lexmark’s development of industry-specific solutions while also immediately expanding our reach into the midmarket, where there is increasing demand for technology to better manage the growing amount of unstructured information and improve customer engagement,”
Lexmark reported $3.7 billion in adjusted revenue in the last fiscal year.
Kofax was founded in 1985 and is based in Irvine, California. The company posted 2014 revenue of $297 million. It has more than 20,000 employees and operates all over the world. The firm is a leading provider of smart process applications.
The acquisition is set to close in the second quarter if it receives approval from shareholders and regulators.