(Bloomberg) — Enterprise software company Zendesk Inc. has received a takeover offer from a consortium of private equity firms that includes Hellman & Friedman, Advent International Corp.
and Permira, according to people familiar with the matter.
Other potential buyers could also be interested in Zendesk, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.
Zendesk said in a statement Thursday that it had received and rejected an unsolicited proposal from private equity firms that valued it at $127 to $132 a share, without disclosing the names of the bidders.
The company’s board said it concluded the proposal undervalues the company and wasn’t in the best interest of shareholders.
Zendesk shares closed at $114.18 on Thursday, giving it a market value of $13.9 billion.
Its shares traded as high as $122.88 in after-hours trading following the statement.
Representatives for Zendesk, Hellman & Friedman and Permira declined to comment. A spokesperson for Advent couldn’t be reached for comment.
The offer, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, comes at a sensitive time for Zendesk.
It’s trying to get its takeover of Momentive Global Inc. approved by shareholders, many of whom oppose it.
Zendesk agreed to buy Momentive in October in an all-stock transaction valued at roughly $4 billion at the time.
The transaction was met with a dramatic sell-off in both companies as investors balked at the tie-up. With the jump in Zendesk’s share price, the value of the deal, which had fallen to about $3.4 billion, rose back to around $3.8 billion, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.
Zendesk shareholder Janus Henderson Group Plc came out against the acquisition this year.
Jana Partners, an activist investor that has said it owns Zendesk shares, is also urging shareholders to reject the deal.
Momentive shares rose about 5% in after-hours trading Thursday to $17.50.
Private equity firms have shown a seemingly endless appetite for software companies and a willingness to partner for buyouts.
In a transaction announced in November, two of the firms included in the group that bid for Zendesk, Permira and Advent, teamed up to take cybersecurity company McAfee Corp. private.
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