The Israeli M&A market is on fire. Just last week HP announced the purchase of Israel-based Nur Microprinters for $117.5 million and today it’s the turn of NetManage (Nasdaq:NETM), a company with deep Israeli roots.
The 27-year-old company founded by Zvi Alon has been acquired by Rocket Software for approximately $69 million cash, turning a profit of 95% premium above yesterday’s closing price ($7.2 per share, compared with a closing price yesterday of $3.7).
Zvi Alon, chairman and CEO of NetManage commented on the deal:
“We feel confident this is the right strategy for our shareholders, customers, and employees, and that Rocket will continue to build on our legacy. NetManage’s specialized solutions for integrating, web-enabling, and accessing enterprise information systems will strengthen and advance Rocket’s set of offerings.”
NetManage develops enterprise software that transforms legacy applications into new web-based applications. It went from early “screen-scraping” technology to tools that can help companies make older, less user-friendly applications part of modern IT infrastructures and even service-oriented architectures.
NetManage currently employs 215 people in the US, Israel, and Canada. The company says it has over 10,000 customers worldwide, including the majority of the Fortune 500. The deal is expected to be closed on February of 2008, once the due diligence process is complete and both boards ratify the deal. Since the deal has been announced, NetManage’s stock price has went up about 80%.
On a related note, Israel newsletter presented their top two Israeli M&A candidates for 2008. Keep an eye on Amdocs (DOX), the telecom billing system provider and Ormat Technologies (ORA), who is in the business of geothermal and recovered energy power.
