According to Australian specialist news site StartUpSmart, a potentially acrimonious public showdown between SaaS construction collaboration provider Aconex and disgruntled shareholder Hawthorn Glen has been averted by a last minute settlement between the two sides.
As noted in June (post), Hawthorn Glen had demanded access to Aconex documents relating to February’s EGM when a move to replace chairman Martin Hosking was defeated amid concerns about the company’s apparent under-performance.
“Faced with the prospect of opening up its books to the courts or giving Hawthorn Glen access to previously-guarded documents, Aconex chose the latter on the day of the scheduled court appearance.”
Aconex CEO Leigh Jasper says he was pleased they were able to resolve the document access issue but refused to be drawn on the under-performance or conflict of interest issues. Hawthorn Glen, meanwhile, remains committed to getting Aconex to improve its performance, transparency and governance, so, with its lawyers now being able to pore over the disputed documents, I suspect this is not the end of the confrontation.
