Autonomy To Acquire Interwoven

UK infrastructure software company Autonomy has agreed to acquire US content management software company Interwoven for US$775m in cash.

Under the terms of the deal, Autonomy will pay US$16.20 in cash per Interwoven share, a premium of 36.8% to the closing share price of $11.84 on January 21, 2009, and a premium of 36.2% to the average closing share price over the 30 days through January 21, 2009.

The aggregate consideration of approximately $775 million will be funded by an underwritten placing of ordinary shares, a new revolving credit facility from Barclays and a portion of Interwoven and Autonomy’s cash reserves. Post-closing, Autonomy expects to have a cash balance of at least $75 million.

Dr. Mike Lynch, Group CEO of Autonomy, said: “The combination of Autonomy and Interwoven, industry leaders in Meaning Based Computing and document and content management respectively, will continue the extension of Autonomy’s IDOL as a key element of the regulatory, legal and compliance industries. Our past acquisitions have clearly demonstrated how Autonomy can quickly and effectively leverage the power of IDOL into new customer bases and to address new customer needs. We are very familiar with Interwoven, its product base and management team through our partnership and joint customers over the years and see this transaction as an exciting opportunity to extend the chain of Autonomy’s solutions.”

Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley are financial advisers to Autonomy. Citi is corporate broker to Autonomy.

Source: Thomson Merger News