The plan of Swiss banking software maker Temenos to buy U.K. company Fidessa looked a done deal. All of a sudden, two rival bidders have surfaced.
The negotiations about the acquisition of Fidessa, a U.K. provider of trading systems and financial information, were at an advanced stage, as finews.com had reported in February.
The board of Fidessa had accepted a bid of about 1.8 billion Swiss francs. Temenos would have sales in excess of a billion francs after the acquisition.
Hedge Fund Activist
All of a sudden, two further interested parties have entered the frame. Fidessa on Tuesday reported that two mutually independent bidders had filed offers in excess of the Temenos bid. Fidessa did not specify the names of the bidders.
It wouldn’t come as a surprise if the man behind these bids is Paul Singer. The activist investor and hedge fund billionaire owns a minority stake of Fidessa and reportedly criticized the Temenos bid as insufficient, according to a report by «Bloomberg» in February.
Temenos now faces a costly takeover battle. A problem that already is weighing on the stock of the Geneva-based company.
