BroadSoft explores potential sale: report

BroadSoft, a US provider of software that helps companies offer cloud-based communications services, is exploring its options, including the potential sale of the company, according to people familiar with the matter.

The move comes as BroadSoft faces increasing competition from larger technology companies such as Cisco, Ericsson and Nokia, as well as newer market entrants such as 8x8.

BroadSoft is working with investment bank Jefferies LLC as it pursues a possible sale to another company or a private equity firm, the sources said this week. There is no certainty of any deal, the sources added.

The sources asked not to be identified because the deliberations are confidential. BroadSoft and Jefferies declined to comment.

BroadSoft shares ended up 11.5 percent at US$48 on the news, giving the company a market capitalisation of US$1.5 billion.

Based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, BroadSoft provides software and services that enable mobile, fixed-line and cable service providers to offer unified communications over their internet protocol networks.

BroadSoft has historically sold its products to large telecommunications companies, which then resell the software to their business customers. BroadSoft has recently tried to revamp its business model to sell directly to these customers, a move that risks its relationships with its telecommunications partners, according to a Barclays research report published last month.

BroadSoft competitor Mitel announced a deal to buy rival ShortTel last month for US$430 million.

Reuters in February reported that BroadSoft competitor 8x8 Inc had been exploring a sale.

New York-based hedge fund P2 Capital Partners LLC owned a 4.6 percent stake in BroadSoft as of the end of June, according to Thomson Reuters data. P2 has often behaved as an activist shareholder and has even offered to buy companies in which it has invested.

For example, P2 pressured Epiq Systems in 2014 to seek a sale, eventually placing its own US$1.1 billion bid for the software company. The bid was rejected, and Epiq was sold two years later to OMERS Private Equity and buyout firm Harvest Partners LP.

Another BroadSoft shareholder with a history of acquisitions is buyout firm KKR & Co LP, which is Broadsoft's 13th-largest shareholder, according to Thomson Reuters data.

For the second quarter ending 30 June, Broadsoft's revenue rose to US$88.8 million, up 9 percent from US$81.7 million a year earlier. Its net loss was US$3 million, compared with a loss of US$2.9 million a year earlier.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker in San Francisco and Michael Flaherty in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Richard Chang)