WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. (AP) — The board of learning software company Renaissance Learning Inc. is rejecting a newly sweetened buyout offer from Plato Learning Inc. in favor of an accepted, although lower bid from private equity firm Permira Funds.
Permira and Plato, a privately held education software company based in Bloomington, Minn., have separately been pursuing Renaissance since August.
Renaissance said Tuesday that its board determined that Plato's new offer "could not reasonably be expected to lead to a superior proposal" than that of Permira Funds.
Plato had raised its offer for Renaissance on Friday to $16.90 per share in cash, or about $496 million. It had initially made an unsolicited bid of $15.50 per share, or about $454 million, in August, raising that to about $471 million in late September.
Renaissance Learning has already agreed to sell itself to private equity firm Permira for about $455 million. Permira is offering $15 per share in cash paid to the Pauls, as well as affiliates and family members, and $16.60 per share in cash for the remainder of Renaissance Learning's outstanding shares. The Pauls and their affiliates own about 69 percent of the company's outstanding stock.
The latest Plato bid, meanwhile, does not spell out a separate per-share amount for Renaissance co-founders Terrance and Judith Paul and their affiliates.
Instead it leaves it up to the Renaissance board, or the Pauls, to propose how to allocate the funds. The September offer had included a separate $15.10 per share offer for the Pauls, and $18 per share for the remaining stock.
The Pauls have said that they will not accept a deal with Plato.
Renaissance Learning recommends that shareholders approve the Permira Funds offer at a special shareholders meeting scheduled for Monday. The Pauls, along with their affiliates and family members, plan to vote their shares in support of the Permira Funds deal.
Shares of Renaissance Learning, which is based in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., fell 21 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $16.80 in midday trading Tuesday. The stock has risen about 40 percent since Aug. 15, the day before Renaissance first said Permira was buying the company.
