Macquarie Telecom's proposal to acquire Bulletproof has expired, clearing the way for a higher-value bid from Sydney IT solution provider AC3.
Bulletproof informed investors today that Macquarie Telecom's offer had expired on 30 April. MacTel has confirmed it will not extend the offer.
MacTel set off a bidding war for publicly listed Bulletproof in November, when it announced a deal valuing Bulletproof at $18 million.
The price was a premium over Bulletproof's market capitalisation, which had sunk dramatically over several years following the cloud hosting company's public listing, whose shares had fallen from a high of 53c in early 2016 to less than 7 cents.
However, the deal was under pressure from the start, with a series of Bulletproof shareholders criticising the valuation. Bulletproof's third-largest shareholder, Microequities Asset Management, said it would reject the bid, dubbing it "highly opportunistic and unreasonable".
AC3 stepped into the frame in January with a higher offer valuing Bulletproof at $24.7 million, more than $5 million higher than MacTel's original offer.
Bulletproof’s board unanimously recommended shareholders accept AC3's 15.2 cents per share offer to acquire 100 percent of the company.
With Macquarie Telecom's competing offer now out of the picture, AC3's proposal is on track to be implemented on 6 June, pending shareholders and regulatory approvals.
Bulletproof's share price has risen since MacTel made its move, doubling from 7 cents in November to 14 cents at time of writing, and continuing to rise off the back of today's announcement.
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