Tag Archives: M&A

Battle for Fuji Soft Intensifies, Bain Capital Makes Bold $4B Offer to Outbid Rival KKR

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Bain Capital has outbid rival KKR with a $4 billion offer to acquire Fuji Soft, a prominent Japanese software developer, setting the stage for a rare high-stakes showdown between two private equity giants. Bain’s bid, which values Fuji Soft at 9,450 yen per share, surpasses KKR’s offer by approximately 7%, igniting a fierce contest for control of the company.

Bain Capital’s move marks a significant escalation in the competition, as both firms vie for Fuji Soft’s backing. KKR had previously advanced its tender offer at 8,800 yen per share but has now found itself outpaced by Bain’s more aggressive bid. Fuji Soft’s board had earlier recommended that shareholders accept KKR’s offer, making Bain’s path to securing the acquisition more complex.

The shares of Fuji Soft, closing at 9,000 yen on Friday, reflect the heated competition and the significant interest both firms have in the company. Bain Capital, in a statement on Friday, announced its intention to formally launch the offer by the end of October, contingent on gaining Fuji Soft’s approval.

Rare Showdown

This bidding war between Bain and KKR is a rare spectacle in private equity, where two industry titans openly compete for control of a major company. Such high-profile showdowns have been uncommon in the sector, but history offers a few parallels. Notably, the fierce battle between KKR and TPG Capital over TXU Corp., a Texas-based energy company, in 2007 remains one of the most significant private equity face-offs. Another famous contest was KKR’s pursuit of RJR Nabisco in 1988, which ultimately resulted in a $25 billion deal, then the largest leveraged buyout in history.

The Fuji Soft battle, while smaller in scale, carries similar stakes. The company has been the focus of attention due to internal shareholder conflicts, and the involvement of both Bain and KKR has only intensified the spotlight.

Bain’s decision to outbid KKR signals the firm’s strong belief in the company’s potential for future growth and profitability. The competition has underscored Fuji Soft’s appeal as a valuable player in Japan’s tech landscape, and both firms appear willing to go the distance to secure its acquisition.

However, with KKR’s tender offer still endorsed by Fuji Soft’s board, Bain Capital faces a significant challenge in pushing its bid forward. The coming weeks will be pivotal in determining the final outcome of this contest, which could set a precedent for future private equity battles.

 

Team Indus Pitches for $40 Mln Funding to Emerge as India’s Equivalent of SpaceX

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Team Indus, the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPRIZE, wants to go beyond the challenge and emerge as India’s equivalent of SpaceX, US private space company, with an eye on additional fund-raising to the tune of $40 million in the next round.

With its lunar rover mission launch set for December aboard ISRO’s PSLV rocket, Team Indus wants to expand its operational capabilities in launching and managing communication satellites.

The $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE challenge is a global competition to inspire engineers and entrepreneurs to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration by a privately funded team. The team must successfully place a robot on the Moon that explores at least 500 meters and transmits high-definition video and images back to Earth.

Team Indus has already raised $20 million in its first round from the country’s top investors such as Ratan Tata, Nandan Nilekani, Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal, Subrata Mitra and Shekhar Kirani. The next round of funding will be utilized for expansion of its North Bangalore facility to undertake more space launches, said Team Indus founder Rahul Narayan.

The upcoming mission will carry its rover and 11 other payloads from Japan, France and UAE in the moon-laning mission. The spacecraft is under development at National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) and the final assembly will be done at the Team Indus facility in North Bengaluru.

Elaborating on their moon landing mission, Narayan told TOI: “ISRO’s Chandrayaan 1 was an orbital mission, while our spacecraft has to land on the Moon.” The flight testing of the spacecraft and payloads will be done at ISRO’s facility, before the final launch, he said.

Since ISRO is planning to employ a private launch vehicle by 2020, Team Indus sees imense potential and emerge as the country’s top private spacecraft manufacturer. “We see ourselves augmenting ISRO’s capacities, not capabilities,” Narayan said.

Team Indus is among the five teams to have been awarded a combined $5.25 million in recognition of “key technological advancements toward their quest to land a private spacecraft on the surface of the moon,” said the Xprize Foundation. The successful landing will get the team the final prize amount of $15 million.

Peter Diamandis, Lunar XPRIZE founder, while announcing the prize, said:”It has been many decades since we explored the Moon from the lunar surface, and it could be another 6–8 years before any government returns. Even then, it will be at a large expense, and probably with little public involvement.”

While the ideas initially mooted by Peter Diamandis, NASA was facing budget constraints, he approached Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, at an X Prize Foundation fundraiser and they agreed to sponsor it, and raise the amount of the prize money to $30 million, including a second prize, besides some bonus prizes. However, it was brought down to $15 million later.