Pitney Bowes offloads software solutions business for US$700m

Customer intelligence and geolocation services vendor Pitney Bowes has sold its software solutions business to big data software vendor Syncsort for US$700 million.

Pitney Bowes said the proceeds of the sale will be used to pay down debt. The deal is expected to close at the end of 2019, pending regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

“We have several tranches of debt that are maturing over the next two years and we will use the majority of the net proceeds from this transaction to pay down that debt and we will refinance the remainder,” Pitney Bowes executive vice president and CFO Stan Sutula said.

“Further, we have well-established relationships with our bank group and are structuring a proactive refinancing plan that reflects a diversity of funding sources and will leverage the capital markets, as appropriate.”

The divestment comes after Pitney Bowes’ evaluation of strategic alternatives in 2018, which also saw the divestment of multiple businesses and operations to pay down debt, pay for share buybacks and new investments.

Pitney Bowes CEO Marc B. Lautenbach said the software and data business “made great progress” over the last few years and is “very confident” of its prospects going forward.

“We have always said, however, if a business was worth more to someone else than to us, we would consider a sale. The sale of our Software Solutions business to Syncsort confirms that philosophy,” Lautenbach said.