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lma21 | 1 year ago

> IBM will pay $35 per share for HashiCorp, a 42.6% premium to Monday's closing price

Is that an insane premium or what?

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NewJazz|1 year ago

I think typical premium is about 20% for acquisitions.

The amount may have been negotiated prior to this month's downturn, which Hashicorp was hit pretty hard by (they had about a 10% fall based on what I'm seeing).

mdasen|1 year ago

Yea, I think it often depends on where a company's stock has moved recently. IBM's offer is still below HashiCorp's 52-week high. That means there's probably a lot of current investors who likely wouldn't approve a deal at a 20% premium. If your stock is near its 52-week high, then a 20% premium looks a lot more reasonable.

April-August of last year, HashiCorp was regularly above a 20% premium over Monday's close. Many investors might think it would get back there without a merger - and it had been higher. IBM is offering $35/share which is close to the $36.39 52-week high. In some cases, investors are delusional and just bought in at the peak. In other cases, a company's shares have been under-valued and the company shouldn't sell itself cheaply.

I don't think one can really have a fixed percent premium for acquisitions because it really depends. Is their stock trading at a bargain price right now? Maybe people who believe in the stock own a lot of the company and don't have more capital to buy shares at the price they consider to be a bargain - but would vote against selling at that bargain price even if they can't buy more. They're confident other investors will come around. An acquiring company wants to make an offer they think will be accepted by the majority of investors, but also doesn't want to pay more than it has to. If the stock has been down and investors think it's a sinking ship, they don't have to offer much of a premium. If the stock is up a ton and investors sense a bubble, maybe they don't have to offer much of a premium. If the stock has been battered, but a lot of shareholders believe in it, then they might need to offer more of a premium.

rwmj|1 year ago

It was a 63% premium when IBM bought Red Hat. Sadly I'd sold my RSUs about 2 days before :-(

dralley|1 year ago

Same, but with ESPP stock, and it was a few months earlier. Ouch.

NewJazz|1 year ago

I still voted no.

jedberg|1 year ago

Yeah, congrats to the people who held the stock yesterday!