| [December 20, 2011] |
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Thoma Bravo Acquires Control of InfoVista
SAN FRANCISCO & PARIS --(Business Wire)--
Regulatory News:
Thoma
Bravo, LLC, a leading U.S. private equity investment firm, and
InfoVista (Paris:IFV), a global leader of service performance assurance
("InfoVista" or the "Company"), today announced that Thoma Bravo and
many of InfoVista's largest shareholders (the "Selling Shareholders")
have simultaneously signed an agreement and completed a transaction on
December 20, 2011 (the "Closing Date"), under which Thoma Bravo has
acquired, through an acquisition vehicle, 10,827,692 InfoVista shares,
representing 67.26% of the share capital (excluding the treasury shares)
and voting rights of InfoVista. The Selling Shareholders include, among
others, the three largest shareholders of the Company namely
Emancipation Capital LLC, Odyssee Venture and ESW. Each InfoVista share
was acquired at a purchase price per share of €5.05, representing a 44%
premium to InfoVista's closing share price of 3.50€ on December 9, 2011,
the last full trading day before InfoVista publicly requested a trading
suspension of its shares from Euronext Paris.
The acquisition was carried out by "Project Metro Acquco SAS (News - Alert)", a company
in the process of incorporation ("Acquco").
The purchase price per InfoVista share of €5.05 will be paid to the
Selling Shareholders in cash in two installments: €3.65 per share was
paid at completion on the Closing Date (December 20, 2011); the
remaining €1.40 per share will be paid by Acquco within 90 days from the
Closing Date.
In parallel, on December 20, 2011, Acquco and the holding Luxembourg
company controlling it, Project Metro SCA ("SCA Luxco"), entered into an
irrevocable agreement with Philippe Ozanian (CEO of the Company) and
other key managers of InfoVista (the "Managers") for the contribution in
kind to SCA Luxco and the sale to Acquco of all of their BSAAR
(warrants) by the Managers, these transactions being based by
transparency on a value of €5.05 per BSAAR less the strike price (less
any amount received under the Exceptional Distribution referred to
below).
Regarding the transaction, Philippe Ozanian (CEO of the Company) said: "We
are very pleased to welcome Thoma Bravo, a specialized investor with
deep understanding of our business model and industry, as majority
shareholder and strategic partner to InfoVista. With their support, we
will pursue our development as a leading supplier of service performance
assurance solutions."
A shareholders' meeting of the Company will be convened and held within
85 days from the Closing Date (th "Shareholders' Meeting") to approve
an exceptional distribution per share of €1.40 (the "Exceptional
Distribution"). As the majority shareholder of the Company, Acquco has
undertaken to vote in favour of the Exceptional Distribution at the
Shareholders' Meeting. An independent expert will be appointed to
confirm the financial feasibility of the Exceptional Distribution.
The shares of InfoVista are listed on the compartment C of NYSE Euronext
Paris. As required by applicable regulations, Acquco intends to file in
the first half of January 2012 a simplified all-cash public tender offer
(offre publique d'achat simplifiée) with the Autorité des
marchés financiers ("AMF") at a price of €5.05 per InfoVista share
on the shares it has not already acquired; however, if the Exceptional
Distribution is approved by the Shareholders' Meeting and paid before
the opening of the simplified tender offer, the price per share for the
simplified tender offer would be adjusted accordingly to €3.65.
Following the simplified tender offer, Acquco reserves the possibility,
subject to completion of legal requirements, to pursue a squeeze-out (retrait
obligatoire) at the same price per share as the simplified tender
offer mentioned above. Acquco will file with the AMF a draft offer
information note (projet de note d'information), which will
provide detailed information on the offer. In addition, InfoVista,
pursuant to its Board of Directors' final recommendation, will file a
draft response note (projet de note en réponse), which will
include an independent expert report on the fairness of the financial
terms and conditions of the simplified tender offer and squeeze-out.
The Company has appointed Ricol Lasteyrie as independent expert in
compliance with the General Rules (règlement general) of the AMF.
The Company has requested a trading suspension of its shares from
Euronext Paris until the opening date of the simplified tender offer.
As a consequence of the change of control, four Board members of
InfoVista have resigned and two new Board members have been coopted. The
Board of InfoVista now includes, in addition to Philippe Ozanian, who
remains as its CEO, Jim Lines, Thoma Bravo Operating Partner and Robert
Sayle, Vice President, Thoma Bravo all coopted upon proposal by Acquco.
"Thoma Bravo is excited to become a strategic partner with
Infovista's management team as we collaborate to strengthen the
company's global leadership, position it for further growth, and
continue focusing on customer satisfaction," said Robert Sayle, Vice
President at Thoma Bravo.
Atlas Technology Group is acting as financial advisor and Jeantet
Associés and Blank Rome LLP are acting respectively as French and U.S.
legal advisors to InfoVista. Bryan, Garnier & Co is acting as financial
advisor as well as the presenting and guaranteeing bank to Thoma Bravo
for the envisaged simplified tender offer. The Franklin law firm is
acting as French legal counsel and Kirkland & Ellis as U.S. legal
counsel to Thoma Bravo.
About InfoVista InfoVista is
the leading provider of service performance assurance software solutions
for IP-based network and application services. We empower communication
service providers and large IT enterprise organizations to transform
their IT infrastructure into a distinctive asset for revenue generation,
customer loyalty and business agility by adopting a quality centric
approach to expedite the launch of innovative, differentiated and
performing services ahead of the competition. InfoVista's unified
network performance management and application performance management
platform equips 80% of the world's largest operators and a roster of
global enterprises with the actionable visibility they need to ensure a
high-quality user experience end-to-end, by holistically and effectively
assuring the performance and quality of their converged network and IT
services, while keeping operational costs as low as possible. InfoVista
is traded on the Euronext Paris (FR0004031649) and can be found online
at www.infovista.com
About Thoma Bravo, LLC Thoma
Bravo is a leading private equity investment firm that has been
providing equity and strategic support to experienced management teams
building growing companies for 30 years. The firm originated the concept
of industry consolidation investing, which seeks to create value through
the strategic use of acquisitions to accelerate business growth. Thoma
Bravo applies its investment strategy across multiple industries, with a
particular focus on the software and service sectors, and works in
partnership with management to implement its operating and consolidation
expertise to build long-term value. In software, Thoma Bravo has
completed more than 46 add-on acquisitions across 18 platform companies
with total annual earnings of approximately $1 billion. For more
information, visit www.thomabravo.com.

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