Wednesday March 28, 4:30 pm Eastern Time
Press Release
SOURCE: Peritus Software Services, Inc.
Peritus Software Services Announces It Has Received a Non-Binding Offer for Acquisition of the Company
WESTBOROUGH, Mass., March 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Peritus Software Services, Inc. (OTC: PTUS.OB - news), a provider of solutions for software maintenance technology and services, today announced it has received a non-binding offer from Rocket Software, Inc. (``Rocket'') for acquisition of the Company. Rocket currently owns 10,000,000 shares of the Company's common stock representing 36.6% of the total outstanding shares of 27,319,903.
Under the terms of the offer, the Company would be merged into Rocket or a Rocket subsidiary. All shareholders other than Rocket would be paid $0.19 per share in cash.
The offer provides that the transaction must be completed before June 30, 2001 and that the Company must have at least $5,650,000 in cash at closing prior to transaction costs. Completion of the transaction is subject to the negotiation of a definitive merger agreement, approval by the holders of a majority of Peritus' outstanding Common Stock, obtaining the requisite third party and governmental consents and other customary closing conditions. The parties intend to begin promptly negotiating a definitive merger agreement. The Company's book value per share at December 31, 2000 was $0.23 and its cash and investment balance was $6,127,000. The Company's stock price closed at $0.072 on March 27, 2001.
``I am extremely pleased with this offer,'' said John Giordano, President and CEO. ``It represents a substantial premium over our current market price, and slight premium over our estimate of book value after transaction costs assuming a closing at the end of June. In addition, I believe the Peritus business and the Rocket business fit very well together |
