Shares of Lawson Software rose nearly 6 percent Monday, and stayed well above last week's takeover bid price of $11.25 per share in cash, an indication that some shareholders anticipate a bid higher than the current $1.8 billion.
Late Friday, Lawson said it had received an unsolicited buyout offer from privately held Infor Global Solutions, which is owned by Golden Gate Capital. Lawson said it was in talks with the bidder, but said there was no guarantee that discussions would end in a deal. Infor, based in Georgia, has grown almost entirely through acquisitions, giving it the reputation among some analysts as a "serial acquirer."
Shares of the St. Paul business software firm closed at $12.24. The stock has risen as buyout rumors circulated, gaining more than 20 percent in the past week.
Lawson was founded in northeast Minneapolis in the 1970s, and makes hospital, financial and human resources software for midsize businesses and school districts.
"Lawson hasn't walked away from the bid by Infor and Golden Gate, but it's not a foregone conclusion they they'll take it," said Steve Koenig, an analyst with Longbow Research of Cleveland, who says there's a 50-50 chance of a competing bid from firms such as Hewlett-Packard, Oracle Corp and German software firm SAP.
"The $11.25 bid has effectively put a floor on the stock price, but it's not much of a premium to where Lawson's stock would trade in the absence of a bid," Koenig said.
None of the other potential bidders needs Lawson, but one of them could acquire it for strategic reasons, such as driving economies of scale or helping penetrate the middle market for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Koenig said.
Oracle or SAP could gain from Lawson's strength in large hospitals, Koenig said. HP hasn't previously invested in ERP systems, but might now because the new HP CEO, Léo Apotheker, was formerly CEO of SAP, he said.
