(Reuters) - Swiss technology firm SoftwareOne Holding, which is currently in talks to sell itself, is nearing a deal to acquire Norwegian rival Crayon Group Holding, Bloomberg News reported on
SoftwareOne Approaches Acquisition of Norway's Crayon Group
(Reuters) - Swiss technology firm SoftwareOne Holding, which is currently in talks to sell itself, is nearing a deal to acquire Norwegian rival Crayon Group Holding, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
The Swiss company is in the final stages of presenting a bid for Crayon and intends to take the company private, the report said, citing sources, adding that a deal could be announced as early as this month.
SoftwareOne plans to finance the acquisition primarily or entirely with stock, according to the report.
Its shares were down nearly 12% at 6.39 Swiss francs ($7.18) after the Bloomberg report, resulting in a company a valuation of about 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.12 billion).
Meanwhile, Crayon Group rose by 8.5% at 137.7 crowns, giving it a market capitalization of about 12.16 billion crowns ($1.09 billion).
SoftwareOne declined to comment, while Crayon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Bloomberg News first reported in September that SoftwareOne was exploring a potential merger with Crayon Group.
SoftwareOne, which helps customers buy and manage software from other providers, is also in talks to go private and said last month it had set a deadline to conclude the discussions.
The Swiss company has been in talks with potential buyers, including private equity company Apax Partners, to take itself private.
($1 = 11.1356 Norwegian crowns)
($1 = 0.8899 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Kritika Singh in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
