Stamps.com stock soared Friday.
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Shares of Stamps.com rocketed more than 60% Friday after Thoma Bravo agreed to buy the e-commerce shipping provider for $6.6 billion.
Thoma Bravo, a Chicago buyout shop, is paying $330 a share for Stamps.com (ticker: STMP), a near 67% premium to the company’s closing share price of $197.72 on Thursday. Stamps.com’s board has approved the deal that will see Stamps.com become a private company.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter, subject to customary closing conditions and approval by Stamps.com stockholders.
“Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone in the history of Stamps.com and will provide us with a new and exciting platform from which we can continue to execute our global strategy driven by best-in-class software and technology solutions,” said Ken McBride, Stamps.com’s Chairman and CEO, in a statement.
Founded in 1996, Stamps.com provides Internet mailing and shipping solutions. The El Segundo, California company is an approved licensed vendor for the U.S. Postal Service. Customers, which include consumers, small businesses, and large enterprises, can print U.S. Postal Service postage for both domestic and international shipping. Individual users pay $17.99 a month and can ship items from anywhere as long as they have a ZIP Code, the company’s website said.
The sale to Thoma Bravo includes a 40-day go-shop, which expires on Aug. 18. This provision allows Stamps.com’s board and its advisors to actively seek out and consider alternative takeover offers from third parties. Go-shops, however, rarely result in a higher bid mainly because the parties lack time to conduct due diligence.
The acquisition is the latest for Thoma Bravo, a software investor that is no stranger to big deals. In April, Thoma inked a $12.3 billion purchase of cybersecurity firm Proofpoint. The PE firm also completed that month its $10.2 billion acquisition of RealPage, a real estate software firm. In 2020, Thoma Bravo provided one of the biggest exits, when it sold Ellie Mae to the Intercontinental Exchange for $11 billion. The firm made four times its money on a holding of less than two years, Barron’s reported.
“As the first company to introduce online postage and an early innovator in e-commerce shipping software, Stamps.com has established itself as a key technology solution in worldwide e-commerce,” said Holden Spaht, a Thoma Bravo managing partner, in a statement.
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