Elias Stein
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Enterprise software stocks have been under siege lately. But depressed valuations are attracting bargain-minded private equity buyers. Wednesday,
Ping identity
,
which sells identity security software, announced a deal to be acquired by Thoma Bravo for $28.50 per share, or $2.8 billion. Ping went public at $15 a share in September 2019 and sold for a staggering 63% premium to Tuesday’s closing price.
Thoma Bravo has been a busy buyer. In June, the company bought Anaplan for $10.4 billion in cash; in May, it paid $2.6 billion for payments technology company Bottomline Technologies; and in April he agreed to buy
SailPoint Technologies
,
which also sells identity software, for $6.9 billion. BTIG Holdings analyst Gray Powell notes that Thoma Bravo is paying about 6.5 times projected 2023 sales.
Okta
,
a Ping rival, trades 6.8 times, while
ForgeRock
,
another pair, for 5.8. The SailPoint deal, Powell adds, was priced at just over 10 times 2023 sales.
Powell says Ping’s term-licensing business model “has consistently created earnings confusion and carries a higher degree of title risk,” leading him to believe that no other bidders will emerge. Raymond James analyst Adam Tindle sees synergies between Ping’s pending SailPoint deal and Thoma Bravo.
The Ping deal had side effects: Okta, a struggling pandemic darling, rose 7.8% to $105.52, while ForgeRock, which went public in 2021 at $25 per share, surged 8.8% to $23.65. On Friday, Ping shares were trading just below the trade price at $27.92. Okta is still down 53% for the year and ForgeRock is down 11%.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]
Last week
Your base draw
Stocks faltered on tensions in Taiwan, fell after Federal Reserve officials reiterated hawkish sentiments, then rose on earnings. New unemployment claims came in at 260,000, as expected; new jobs soared to 528,000. On weekdays, the
Dow Jones Industrial Average
was down 0.13% at 32,803.47; the
S&P500
edged up 0.36% to 4145.19; and the
Nasdaq Compound
rose 2.15% to 12,657.55.
The pace of gains
At the start of a busy results week,
Goldman Sachs
said 52% of companies beat, above expectations but below the past five quarters.
Devon Energy
led the shale energy crowd with skyrocketing profits and revenues. Big Oil
BP
posted its best profits in 14 years.
KKR
took a loss, blaming market volatility.
Robinhood Markets
lost $295 million and reduced its workforce by 23%, and
Airbnb
lack.
Starbucks
and
SVC Health
to beat,
UberTechnologies
announced its first positive quarterly cash flow, and
Modern
and
PayPal
beat and stocks rallied.
Pelosi in Taiwan
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a delegation of lawmakers traveled to Taiwan, despite growing tensions over the trip between the United States and China. After Pelosi left Taipei, China began live-fire exercises off the coast, boycotted some Taiwanese products and halted military and climate talks. Separately, a US drone strike killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, 71, on a balcony in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Senate in action
The Senate passed a bill it had rejected a week earlier providing funds for Afghan veterans exposed to the burning stoves. Democrats dropped a curb on interest in the tax and climate bill to win the support of Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. And Kansas voters defeated a referendum to ban abortion in the state.
Take out the grain
A ship carrying 26,000 tons of corn has left Odessa for Lebanon, the first of a deal with Russia on grain shipments. Ukraine continued its counteroffensive against Kherson as Russia continued to prepare to annex the region. A Russian court sentenced WNBA star Brittney Griner to nine years for drug trafficking.
Annals of Deal Making
The Justice Department tried to block two deals in separate trials in the same Washington, D.C. courthouse: Bertelesmann’s $2.2 billion Penguin Random House merger and
World Paramount
it is
Simon & Schuster, and
UnitedHealth Group
it is
$8 billion contract for
Changing healthcare
…Global Payments said it would acquire
EVO Payments
for an enterprise value of $4 billion…
Toronto-Dominion Bank
agreed to acquire an investment bank
cowen
for $1 billion… The Wall Street Journal reports that the cosmetics giant
Estee Lauder
was in talks to buy the luxury brand Tom Ford… A
Global Apollo Management
-the led group agreed to buy air cargo company Atlas Air Worldwide for $3.2 billion…Thoma Bravo said he was taking
Ping identity
private for $2.8
billion… Amazon.com
said he was vacuuming
i robot
for $1.65 billion.
Write to Robert Teitelman at [email protected]