Copperleaf was founded in 2000 but shifted into its current iteration as a software maker in the late 2000s and was led for most of the subsequent period by Judi Hess, seen in 2019, who is now the company's vice chair.Rafal Gerszak/The Globe and Mail
Copperleaf Technologies Inc. has agreed to a $1-billion takeover by IFS AB, making it the ninth out of 20 tech companies that went public during an unprecedented rush of new issues on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2020-21 to reverse course.
The Vancouver company, which sells optimization artificial intelligence-powered software to large enterprises such as utilities and transportation infrastructure giants to analyze, plan and budget how to spend their capital budgets, said Tuesday it had agreed to a bid of $12 a share from the Swedish company. The deal follows an auction that started earlier this year after IFS approached Copperleaf about a potential takeover for at least the second time, according to a source familiar with the deal. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source because they are not authorized to discuss the matter.
The offer is a premium of 70 per cent to Copperleaf’s closing price on May 3, the last trading day before IFS, a global leader in enterprise software for field service management, made its offer, but just 18 per cent above Monday’s closing price. Copperleaf stock has been one of the top tech gainers on the TSX since it announced better-than-expected first quarter results six days after it received IFS’s bid.
“This transaction is a great milestone in Copperleaf’s journey,” said Copperleaf chairman Amos Michelson, a Vancouver tech industry veteran who owns 8.4-million shares, or 11.3 per cent of the stock, in a statement. “It’s evidence of IFS’s belief in our organization and recognition of our success, and rewards our shareholders with attractive cash consideration, providing immediate value and liquidity for their shares.”
IFS chair Darren Roos said in a statement: “The combination of Copperleaf and IFS creates compelling value for the complex, asset-intensive customers we serve as well as partners, investors and employees”.
Copperleaf was founded in 2000 but shifted into its current iteration as a software maker in the late 2000s and was led for most of the subsequent period by Judi Hess, who had previously held senior software roles with MDA and Creo. The company was profitable for most of the 2010s before increasing spending as it prepared to go public and started losing money. Ms. Hess, now Copperleaf’s vice chair, ceded the reins to veteran enterprise software sales executive Paul Sakrzewski early last year
Copperleaf was one of the last of an unprecedented slew of Canadian technology companies to go public on the TSX from mid-2020 to late 2021 as investor interest in the space soared during the pandemic. Its shares were priced at $15 a share after it received investor interest during its roadshow, and jumped to $22.88 on its first day of trading in October 2021 as it raised $140-million.
However, tech stocks, including Copperleaf, soon fell sharply as the specter, later realized, of rapidly rising interest rates cooled interest for speculative early-stage companies. Eight others among the 20 that went public on the TSX are going or have gone private or delisted. That includes Montreal payments software company Nuvei Corp., whose privatization deal is underway. Meanwhile, Lightspeed Commerce Inc. founder Dax Dasilva mused shortly after returning as CEO this spring that his point-of-sale commerce software company could consider doing the same.
Other more seasoned Canadian-listed software companies including Absolute Software Corp., mdf commerce and TrueContext Corp. have also recently agreed to buyouts.
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2024-06-11 13:00:03Z
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