DoubleClick Inc. announced yesterday a cash offer to acquire all of the issued share capital of Protagona plc., a UK-based marketing automation software company, for about 8.4 million pounds ($12.9 million U.S.).
The proposal provides for a price of 2.40 pence (about $0.037) per Protagona share, which represents a premium of about 63 percent to the closing of Protagona's mid-market price per share of 1.475 pence on Sept. 16.
This offer, and Protagona's board recommendation, is conditional on the proposed acquisition by Protagona of Swetenhams Marketing Services Limited not being approved by Protagona shareholders, among other things. Last month, Protagona said it would acquire Swetenhams, and the deal is subject to shareholder approval at a meeting Sept. 19.
DoubleClick, New York, said it expects to integrate Protagona's Ensemble product suite with its existing complementary suite of solutions. Both DoubleClick and Protagona provide the capabilities to plan, execute and measure multichannel marketing campaigns. Protagona's campaign management software lets marketers streamline their activities and manage communications from a single portal.
“DoubleClick and Protagona both stand to benefit from this acquisition,” said Kevin Ryan, CEO, DoubleClick. “This acquisition will open the DoubleClick customer base to Protagona's marketing automation tool and strengthen DoubleClick's position in this growing market through an integrated product offering.”
Protagona said that the board is pleased to unanimously recommend the offer from DoubleClick and that it represents a substantial premium over the current market price and offers shareholders an immediate return on cash in a difficult and uncertain market.
