(Reuters) -Swiss technology firm SoftwareOne Holding and Norwegian rival Crayon Group Holding are in talks to combine, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
The talks between the two companies were advanced, one of the people told Reuters.
Bloomberg News, which first reported the news, said SoftwareOne is nearing a deal to acquire Crayon and intends to take the company private.
SoftwareOne plans to finance the acquisition primarily or entirely with stock, Bloomberg News said.
Crayon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while SoftwareOne declined to comment.
SoftwareOne’s shares were down nearly 12% at 6.39 Swiss francs ($7.18) after the Bloomberg report, resulting in a company valuation of about 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.12 billion).
Meanwhile, Crayon Group rose by 8.5% to 137.7 crowns, giving it a market capitalization of about 12.16 billion crowns ($1.09 billion).
Bloomberg News first reported in September that SoftwareOne was exploring a potential merger with Crayon Group.
SoftwareOne, which helps customers buy and manage software from other providers, is also in talks to go private and said last month it had set a deadline to conclude the discussions.
The Swiss company has been in talks with potential buyers, including private equity firm Apax Partners, to take itself private.
($1 = 11.1356 Norwegian crowns)
($1 = 0.8899 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Emma-Victoria Farr, Oliver Hirt and Kritika Singh; Additional reporting by Surbhi Misra and Nilutpal Timsina; Editing by Pooja Desai and Alan Barona)
