• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • NetManage Says No Thanks to Buyout Offer, Again

    November 27, 2006 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    Midrange and mainframe connectivity software maker NetManage has turned down a slightly sweetened offer to be acquired by two of its current investors.

    Back in September, two current investors in NetManage–Riley Management and Zeff Capital Partners–offered to pay $5.25 a share or about $42 million to buy the remaining 85 percent of NetManage’s shares that the two firms do not already own. Immediately following the announcement, NetManage’s shares spiked to this level, and the company said that it was not interested in the offer. On November 7, Riley Management and Zeff Capital Partners raised their bid to $5.50 a share, and last week, NetManage let the offer expire.

    “In light of NetManage’s challenging operational condition, we believe our offer to acquire the outstanding shares of NetManage, not already owned by us for $5.50 per share, was an excellent opportunity for shareholders to realize a premium for their shares at a fair price,” the two investor companies said in a statement. “We have come to the conclusion that the existing Board of Directors is not interested in selling NetManage even at a favorable price. We have therefore decided not to extend our offer.”

    Considering that NetManage has a market capitalization of $47 million even after the second offer was turned down and had $28.4 million in cash at the end of September, the slightly revised $44 million bid seemed a bit stingy considering that the net cash the two investors would have to shell out was a mere $15.6 million. Depending on how you want to do the math, just taking away the cash from NetManage’s market capitalization would have put a price tag at closer to $18.6 million. NetManage had sales of $43.4 million and a profit of $2.9 million in 2005, and in the first three quarters of 2006, sales at NetManage added up to $27.9 million and a net loss of $1.6 million.

    With the new Attachmate, which is the result of the combination of Attachmate, WRQ, and NetIQ by private equity firms that bought these companies, being much larger and backed by a much bigger stack of capital, you would think that NetManage would be trying very hard to find an equity partner. But, the company is either not interested or is holding out for a much higher price.

    “NetManage has carefully considered the expression of interest it has received and considered the best way to maximize stockholder value,” explained Zvi Alon, NetManage’s chairman, chief executive officer, and president. “NetManage has determined this is best done by continuing to focus on its ongoing operations and performance and not on a conditional request to negotiate an acquisition at an inadequate price.”

    NetManage is located in Cupertino, California, and has over 10,000 customers. Like many other host connectivity and middleware makers, it has staked its claim in the service oriented architecture space, and seems inclined to ride up the SOA wave. The odds favor some private equity firm that also wants to ride up the SOA wave to come in and give NetManage an offer that it will not refuse.

    RELATED STORIES

    NetManage Advocates ‘Incremental SOA’ and Launches Planner Tool

    NetManage Eases Web Development, Tightens Security

    Venture Capitalists Offer to Take NetManage Private

    NetManage’s First Quarter Disappoints

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 15, Number 47 -- November 27, 2006

    Sponsored by
    OCEAN User Group

    OCEAN TechCon25 Online

    It’s an Exciting Time for IBM i !

    July 16 & 17, 2025 – ONLINE

    Two virtual days of learning, presented by an outstanding group of IBM’ers and IBM Champions, featuring leading-edge topics.

    FREE for OCEAN members!

    Register NOW!

    Annual (12-month) Individual OCEAN Memberships are $80 and a Corporate Membership is $250. A Corporate Membership would allow your entire company to have full access to the OCEAN website & video library and to attend OCEAN events at member rates. Act now because rates are increasing on August 1, 2025.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Global Software Partners with Navigor in South Africa Powerful Stuff: Creating Commands with Variable-Length Parameters!

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 15 Issue: 47

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • NetManage Says No Thanks to Buyout Offer, Again
    • Seagull Software Shows Growth in First Half of Fiscal 2007
    • IBM Offers Linux Implementation Services Across All Systems
    • DataMirror Offers Year-End iCluster Deal, Reports Sales and Profits Are Up
    • Vision Solutions Sorts Out Executive Jobs, Product Plans After iTera Acquisition
    • NetManage Says No Thanks to Buyout Offer, Again
    • As I See It: The Other “Tude”
    • iSCSI for System i Update: Showing Some Promise
    • Server Sales Perk Up a Little Bit in the Third Quarter
    • Don’t Wait Until 2008, Kick It Up to 11 in 2007

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • To Comfort The Afflicted And Afflict The Comfortable
    • How FalconStor Is Reinventing Itself, And Why IBM Noticed
    • Guru: When Procedure Driven RPG Really Works
    • Vendors Fill In The Gaps With IBM’s New MFA Solution
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 27
    • With Power11, Power Systems “Go To Eleven”
    • With Subscription Price, IBM i P20 And P30 Tiers Get Bigger Bundles
    • Izzi Buys CNX, Eyes Valence Port To System Z
    • IBM i Shops “Attacking” Security Concerns, Study Shows
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 27, Number 26

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2025 IT Jungle