US fintech company SS&C’s £1.24bn takeover of British software firm Blue Prism has passed regulatory checks and is expected to go ahead, pending approval in a March court hearing.
If approved at the 14 March court hearing, the takeover will take effect the following day. Blue Prism shares will be delisted from the London Stock Exchange the following day, in a blow for the UK’s public markets.
Blue Prism’s initial IPO launched back in 2016 when the company floated on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market.
Founded in 2001, London-based Blue Prism specialises in robotic process automation (RPA), a type of software designed to automate manual and repetitive tasks. The company as of 2022 has served over 2,000 clients, including fortune 500 firms.
SS&C is a global investment and financial services and software provider based in Connecticut, US. The American fintech firm has, however, stated it intends to keep Blue Prism’s headquarters in London.
The original takeover deal was first announced in December of last year, when a bidding war between SS&C and Vista Equity partners drove up the price. Blue Prism shareholders ultimately voted in favour of SS&C.
Vista Equity partners had previously made an offer of approximately £1.22bn.
Blue Prism chairman and CEO Jason Kingdon said the acquisition will provide his company with “significant capital resources and investment in R&D alongside access to SS&C’s extensive 18,000 customers”.
In a statement made at the initial announcement of the takeover, SS&C CEO and chairman Bill Stone said: “Blue Prism will accelerate value delivery by automating increasingly complex tasks.
“With SS&C’s management focus, global salesforce, talented development organization, and significant capital resources, Blue Prism can reach new heights with its intelligent digital workforce”.
Stone added that the “combination of Blue Prism’s market-leading RPA solutions, and SS&C’s top position in the financial services and healthcare industries, we believe, will yield significantly improved results”.
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