Melbourne, Australia-based SaaS construction collaboration technology vendor Aconex today (14 March 2018) announced that shareholders have voted in favour of the proposed acquisition of Aconex by Oracle Corporation (through its wholly owned subsidiary Vantive Australia Pty Ltd). The December 2017 bid, which was recommended by directors, was for Au$7.80 (Au$5.96) per share in cash, a deal valuing Aconex at approximately US$1.2 billion (c. Au$1.6bn, £0.9bn or €1.0bn).
At a meeting in Melbourne, the company announced over 96% of votes had favoured the bid, leading (according to AFR‘s Yolanda Redrup) emotional scenes involving co-founders Leigh Jasper and Rob Phillpot, who walk away with approximately Au$94 million and Au$88 million respectively. Not only is it the largest takeover deal ever achieved by a listed Australian tech company, it is by some distance the biggest deal in the construction SaaS space (over twice the value of Trimble’s acquisition of US-based vendor e-Builder for US$500 million, announced last month).
Deal formalities include approval by the Supreme Court of Victoria (a hearing is scheduled for Thursday, 15 March 2018), and the end of trading in Aconex’s shares on the Australian Securities Exchange (likely on the same date).
Update (15 March 2018) – Approval by the Supreme Court and suspension of trading in Aconex’s shares on the ASX both completed.
