CRM software and services vendor Onyx Software Corp. said yesterday that a special committee of its board of directors unanimously rejected the unsolicited acquisition proposal from CDC Corp.
Onyx received CDC's proposal Dec. 6. CDC, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Chinadotcom, would offer $50 million for a majority of Onyx stock. Onyx, Bellevue, WA, would remain a public company. The offer would be a double-digit premium over Onyx's average trading price.
But Onyx said the transaction would not produce a stronger combined entity and risked eroding value for its shareholders. Onyx also said it is not seeking a sale of the company, as it had previously indicated.
In November 2003, CDC and Onyx made competing bids for Pivotal Corp. after Pivotal entered into a merger agreement with Talisma Corp. that was sponsored by Oak Investment Partners. Though CDC prevailed by acquiring Pivotal in February 2004, at the time Onyx had stated it expected the synergies of a Pivotal/Onyx merger to be accretive to shareholders.
