By Rex Crum, The Mercury News
REDWOOD CITY — Software giant Oracle said its contentious $9.3 billion takeover of NetSuite would be completed on Monday, after more than half of the cloud-storage company’s shareholders gave their approval to the deal.
The acquisition, which values NetSuite at $109 a share, was originally announced in July. However, some large NetSuite shareholders had raised concerns that Oracle was undervaluing the company and questioned the role of Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison in setting the price of the acquisition. Ellison, who is Oracle’s largest shareholder, also owns the biggest stake in NetSuite.
Some NetSuite shareholders, such as T. Rowe Price, had said they weren’t going to tender their shares, and Price said Oracle should up its offer to $133 a share.
However, almost two weeks ago, Oracle’s co-Chief Executive Mark Hurd said the company had made its “best and final” offer for NetSuite and was prepared to walk away from the deal if it wasn’t approved on Oracle’s terms. But, on Saturday, Oracle said that more than 53 percent of NetSuite’s eligible shareholders had voted to tender their shares in favor of the acquisition.
Oracle sees NetSuite as a necessary piece of its ongoing move into more cloud-based software technologies and services.
“This deal makes sense for Oracle, as it allows them to expand their reach to the midmarket companies who are the core customers of NetSuite,” said Tim Bajarin, president of tech research firm Creative Strategies. “(NetSuite CEO) Zach Nelson has built a strong company that continues to grow, and there are likely strong synergies between both companies that makes this deal attractive to both investors and each company’s core customers.”
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©2016 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
