ERP specialist IFS has been acquired by venture capitalist EQT, via its IGT Holding unit. Following EQT’s acquisition of Elliott’s shares in IFS at a price of SEK 396.73 per share, EQT holds some 97% of IFS. The IFS board of directors is to initiate compulsory acquisition proceedings and apply for the delisting of its A and B shares from the Stockholm Nasdaq.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is to acquire supercomputer manufacturer SGI in a transaction valued at approximately $275 million, net of cash and debt. SGI had revenues of $533 million in fiscal 2016 for a loss of $11 million. SGI has a significant footprint in oil and gas with notably, Total’s Pangea supercomputer which was recently upgraded to a sizeable 6.7 petaflop compute bandwidth. Since its separation from the old Hewlett-Packard, HPE has done enterprise-scale deals with Computer Sciences Corp, MicroFocus and now SGI.
Earlier this year ratings agency Fitch ‘affirmed’ Halliburton’s ‘A-’ rating and at the same time, withdrew its ratings for the company. Fitch attributed its negative outlook to the debt Halliburton incurred from the failed Baker Hughes merger and the ‘subsequent lack of additional cash flows [..] in the current depressed oilfield services environment.’ Asked about the ‘withdrawal,’ a Fitch representative told Oil IT Journal, ‘Fitch withdrew coverage of Halliburton for commercial reasons as the relationship was unsolicited.’
Aveva reports that in fiscal 2016 it incurred exceptional costs of £15.2 million including the princely sum of £10.5 million in professional fees, mainly for legal and financial due diligence services related to the aborted Schneider Electric transaction as well as in the acquisition of FabTrol Systems.
Leidos is to merge with Lockheed Martin’s information systems and global solutions business in what is described as a ‘reverse Morris trust transaction’ (not to be confused with a Morris dance!) The combined entity is a $10.8bn Fortune 250 Company focused on the delivery of IT solutions to both commercial and government organizations.
Canadian Energy Services and Technology has acquired Midland, Texas-based Catalyst Oilfield Services in a cash and paper transaction.
Arria is transitioning its primary stock exchange listing from the London Stock Exchange’s junior AIM board to the main board of the New Zealand Stock Exchange, with secondary listings on the Australian Securities Exchange main board and the main market LSE. The company expects that the potential of its NLG artificial intelligence will be ‘fully realized’ in 2017.
© Oil IT Journal - all rights reserved.