Surprising exactly no one, the serial acquirers at Infor and their private equity sugar daddies at Golden Gate Capital have submitted an "unsolicited" takeover bid for Lawson Software. (Lawson's hiring of an investment bank last week wasn't technically a solicitation of the most acquisitive ERP vendor in the universe, but the smell of expensive perfume is hanging in the air over St. Paul).
Really, the only question here is, "what took you so long"? Activist investor Carl Icahn has apparently been looking for some kind of deal for some time, and it was widely believed that Infor brought on former Oracle exec and banker/dealmaker Charles Phillips as CEO to rev up the deal machine again.
The wire release cited in the New York Times article was dated Friday - but so far I haven't seen much coverage of this. Attention financial and software media....
UPDATE: Chris Kanaracus at IDG speculates that other bids might be forthcoming.
Really, the only question here is, "what took you so long"? Activist investor Carl Icahn has apparently been looking for some kind of deal for some time, and it was widely believed that Infor brought on former Oracle exec and banker/dealmaker Charles Phillips as CEO to rev up the deal machine again.
The wire release cited in the New York Times article was dated Friday - but so far I haven't seen much coverage of this. Attention financial and software media....
UPDATE: Chris Kanaracus at IDG speculates that other bids might be forthcoming.
