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Apax Partners acquires Exact

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15th Oct 2014
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London-based venture capitalist Apax Partners has agreed a deal to acquire the Dutch accounting software house Exact for €730m.

The offer of €32 per share represents a 27% premium on the company’s share price on 10 July and was accepted by the company’s founders and other shareholders holding a 60% stake in the business. The agreement is based on the understanding that Exact would retain its corporate identity and culture and continue to operate out of the Netherlands, with no change in employment arrangements.

Founded in the 1980s by a group of freelance programmers, Exact rose to similar prominence in the Netherlands that Sage enjoys in the UK. With the Dutch market embracing cloud computing several years ahead of this country, Exact has been shifting its business model from desktop software to web-based applications for many years.

However the Apax deal raises the possibility that making the transition to cloud-based applications is harder than Exact may have anticipated, leaving it vulnerable to shareholder disaffection.

In its announcement about the offer, Apax boasted that its “considerable international software expertise” will help Exact accelerate its international growth strategy in the cloud along with its plans for hosted systems, mobile functionality and on-premises business software.

In June, Exact appeared at the Accountex event in London to court UK accountants with its exactonline.co.uk offering and has boosted its profile with a campaign around business planning on AccountingWEB.

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