CDC offers $105 million to acquire Chordiant to bolster enterprise software business

CDC offers $105 mln to acquire Chordiant

ATLANTA — CDC Software Corp., a Chinese business software developer, said Wednesday it offered to buy all the outstanding shares of Chordiant Software Inc. for $105.1 million.

The offer of $3.46 per share represents a 21 percent premium over the average closing price of the shares over the 30 trading days up to and including Tuesday, CDC said.

Chordiant shares rose 30 cents, or 9.9 percent, to close at $3.33 on Wednesday. CDC shares rose 35 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $11.50 in after-hours trading, after losing 10 cents to $11.15 in the regular session.

CDC, which owns about 1.3 percent of Chordiant’s outstanding shares, said it would hold a conference call with investors Friday to discuss its offer.

The company said it would offer either 40 percent cash and 60 percent in CDC shares or 50 percent cash and 50 percent in CDC shares to Chordiant shareholders.

CDC said the acquisition could help create a “compelling front office platform in the enterprise market,” and noted it shares many of Chordiant’s top 40 customers, including Barclays, ING, Littlewoods, MetLife, Principal Financial Group and Wellpoint.

Chordiant, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., would gain a platform to expand globally, share product engineering operations in India and China, and benefit from cross-marketing, CDC said. The companies operate in different regions, reducing overlap, it said.

CDC Chief Executive Peter Yip called the offer a “win-win transaction for both companies.”