Yesterday a press release from AccessData (creators of FTK) stated that they had made Guidance Software (GUID) an offer for their remaining stock. They said that their offer of USD$4.50 per share was rejected by Guidance on the basis that the merger/takeover would hurt business for both companies.
AccessData have also said that they plan to take the proposal the Guidance's own shareholders so it sounds like they are planning on rigorously pursuing this.
At close of play yesterday the stock for Guidance stood at USD$3.16 per share. The question is, in the current market, will the offer of USD$4.50 per share be enough to sway the current shareholders?
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Odd. I would've guessed that Guidance would be in a more dominant financial position especially with it's enterprise-level products compared with AccessData's poorly received (to put it politely) FTK 2 which they must have put a lot on money into.
I wouldn't have thought one owner controlling the two major forensic software companies would be good for the development of either product.
Will be interesting to see how this one develops.
From the point of view from the "coal face", I don't see this as being positive news at all. One dominant force within the market is not good, whatever the product
No good at all.
However, we also have X-way forensics and it looks like ASR Data is getting (back) into the Windows based forensic software development.
I want to cover this in my podcast later today. Sadly my partner in crime is thousands of miles away and I was just wondering if anyone would be interested in helping out?
Stuff like this happens all the time - the fact that Access Data made the offer to Guidance doesn't mean Guidance is in a bad financial position.
I'm sure the board had a good laugh over this one…..
Well, Guidance will be due to release their Q3 profits very soon. Given the current economic climate, and the fact that Guidance had a bad Q2, this might have more of an impact that Guidance would care to admit.
GSI's shares have been in the crapper for a while now. They were trading above $10 just a few months back, then with the announcment of their Q2 profits slightly below expectations, they dropped down to ~$5. Since the 'economic crisis' on Wall St., the price has been steadily dropping down to around $2.10 just a week or so ago. A pretty attractive price for a competitor with some extra cash laying around…
Glad GSI said no, now we just have to hope that all of the shareholder's have as much faith in the company as the Board of Directors does.
Jeff
Jonathan,
current acceptance and usability of one's forensic tools has no bearing on the financial backing which may be obtained, to allow you to buy out a rival company…
A good business plan however does.
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