Monitise has accepted a new and improved takeover bid from Fiserv, following a shareholder revolt at the British fintech pioneer that looked to have scuppered the deal.
Monitise and Fiserve agreed a £70m deal in June, but this immediately drew criticism from shareholders as “too low”, given the tech darling was valued at more than £1bn less than three years ago.
Paul Mumford at Cavendish Asset Management, which owns 112m shares in Monitise, had led the charge against the 2.9p offer after deriding it given the stock peaked at 80p.
However, the two companies have now agreed an improved offer of 3.1p per share, valuing the company at £75m. It is also a 35 per cent premium to the Monitise share price before news of a deal first broke.
Urging shareholders to accept the new offer, the board of Fiserv pointed out in their press release that “revenue for the [Monitise] continues to decline and outstrip cost-cutting initiatives”, “Monitise’s cash balance continued to decline”, and that the company “has now been in a public offer period since 13 June 2017 without a third party offer or potential offer emerging.”