| Financial Models Company (FMC); a publicly traded company based in Canada (TOC: FMC), develops software for investment managers. The Company has more than 200 clients and subsidiaries in the United States, Australia and Europe. In late 2004, FMC entered into discussions to be acquired by a publicly traded European financial IT firm. Ultimately, Mr. Stamos D. Katotakis, FMC's co-founder, CEO, and largest shareholder, was not convinced that the indicated value was adequate (about $120 million). His co-founder and another large shareowner disagreed.
On December 8th, 2004, pursuant to an agreement among the Company's three largest shareowners, the other two large shareowners formally offered to sell their shares to Mr. Katotakis at C$12.20/share - the price that the European suitor was willing to pay. Katotakis had 21 days (over Christmas) to raise the capital to buy out his two partners - or go along with the other deal.
On December 13th Mr. Katotakis engaged Marlin & Associates. On December 29th 2004, the last day of his window, Mr. Katotakis was able to announce that he was accepting the "selling notices" from his two partners, and was offering to take FMC private. ABRY Partners, LLC of Boston, committed to providing the $92 million required to purchase the shares not already owned by Katotakis.
The story did not end there. On Jan 20th the European firm increased its offer to C$14.76 / share. Soon after, SS&C Technologies, a US financial-software company, offered C$17.70 (US$14.28) $145 million. Ultimately, On February 26, 2005 SS&C was able to announce that it had reached agreement to acquire FMC for about US$160 million. |
