There’s a big new acquisition in the software world. Silver Lake, an American private equity firm, has penned a formal offer to acquire Software AG (ETR: SOW), a German enterprise software vendor. Silver Lake offered 30 euros in cash per share, valuing Software AG at 2.2 billion euros ($2.4bn).

• The 30 euros-per-share offer represents a 53% premium to Software AG’s share price before the announcement. It is contingent on approval from at least 50% of Software AG’s shareholders.

• The German company’s biggest shareholder, Software AG Foundation, has already signed an agreement to sell a 25% stake. Silver Lake previously purchased over 300 million euros of convertible bonds issued by Software AG, which would represent nearly 9% of shares upon conversion. That leaves a minor percentage of votes to cross the 50% threshold, so the deal is likely sealed.

• The Software AG Foundation will also retain a 5% stake in the acquired company.

Software AG was founded over five decades ago by two German entrepreneurs, Peter Schnell and Peter Pagé. Schnell no longer holds an active role at the company, instead focusing on the Sofware AG Foundation, which he formed in 1992. Pagé left Software AG in 1992 and passed away in 2020.

Software AG offers a variety of enterprise software products and has customers across the globe. The company reported 958 million euros ($1.06bn) in revenue in 2022 and 78 million euros ($87mn) in earnings before interest and taxes.

• Silver Lake is a prominent American buyout firm with nearly $100bn of assets under management. It primarily invests in technology companies, with notable investments including Chinese tech giant Alibaba; Endeavor Group, owner of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) brand; Swedish ‘buy now, pay later’ firm Klarna; and survey software firm Qualtrics.

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