graphic
News > International
Sage in $445M Best deal
January 12, 2000: 6:05 a.m. ET

U.K. software provider to snap up U.S. firm; offers 17% premium
graphic
graphic graphic
graphic
LONDON (CNNfn) - High-flying U.K. software firm Sage Group extended its U.S. reach Wednesday with a deal to buy Best Software for $445 million.
    Sage, the world No. 1 maker of accounting software for personal computers, is offering $35 in cash for each Best Software share, a 17 percent premium to Best's price of 29-9/16 at Tuesday's close.
    Virginia-based Best (BEST) writes software used by companies to control payroll functions and manage their fixed assets. The U.S. company's board has recommended Sage's offer.
    Sage chief executive Paul Walker promised in a statement that the U.K. firm will post strong first-quarter results, and said the acquisition will add to earnings in its first year.
    The money to buy Best will come from a sale of new Sage stock. Sage will issue 43.7 million new shares, roughly 4 percent of its capital.
    Sage was one of the top-performing U.K. stocks during 1999, the gain enough to push the shares into London's blue-chip FTSE 100 index in the final quarter of the year.
    Sage stock gained a further 4.3 percent early Wednesday to reach 716 pence.
    Sage and Best have already cooperated on developing sales channels in the United States, while Sage has promoted some Best products to clients as complementary to its own. Back to top

  RELATED STORIES

U.K. technology shares soar - Nov. 04, 1999

  RELATED SITES

Sage

Best Software


Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney




graphic

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.