Basware today announced that it has terminated discussions with Tradeshift in relation to a possible offer to acquire all shares in Basware. These two leaders in the Procure-to-Pay (“P2P”) space had been in discussions for months about a possible union between the two organizations. When asked 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, Coupa’s acquisition of Acquiire, Certify’s acquisition of Abacus and Captio, AvidXchange’s acquisition of Ariett, and Tradeshift’s acquisition of Babelway. 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.
RELATED ARTICLES
Ardent Analysis: Corcentric to Acquire Determine, Offer Full Source-to-Settle Solution Suite
Aquiired!! Coupa Buys Aquiire and Gains Real-Time Catalog Search Capabilities
Certify Acquires Captio to Increase International Presence
AvidXchange Expands P2P Offering with Acquisition of Ariett
Tradeshift Acquires Cloud Integration Technology Provider Babelway
