Micromuse nets Riversoft for £43m

Nick Goodway12 April 2012

THE brief and turbulent life of telecoms and internet software group Riversoft as a public company has drawn to a close after it recommended a £43.3m takeover bid from Nasdaq-listed rival Micromuse.

The bid will see Phil Tee, variously chairman, acting chief executive and chief technology officer of Riversoft, return to the Micromuse building in Wandsworth, London which he quit to set up Riversoft in 1997. Tee and his family own 8% of the company and, along with other major shareholders, has committed 59% of Riversoft's equity to the bid.

The cash offer of 17 3/4p a share is at a 58% premium to last night's closing price of 11 1/4p but an 81% discount to Riversoft's 94p float price in December 2000. It is also less than the £48.4m cash Riversoft said it had at the end of the first quarter of this year, when it announced its results for that period.

Finance director Fraser Park said the firm had continued to burn cash since March but would not confirm its current cash position was less than the value of the bid.

He said: 'The new management has looked at all the options and this bid is the most efficient way of returning value to shareholders.'

Riversoft employs 166 people. Micromuse said it would restructure the firm to 'maximise value'.

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