Few organisations, in any sector, have weathered the COVID-19 storm as well as ARN and its parent HT&E.
While others have found themselves in significant debt, HT&E has reported no debt and $112 million in net cash.
And now they’re about to reap a $149 million bonus from the sale of their 25% stake in a company called Soprano Design which they acquired for ‘a song,’ back in 2001.
Soprano Design is a CPaaS, which stands for Communications Platform as a Service. It offers a complete development framework for building real-time communications features without having to build your own. You can read more about CPaaS here.
Among Soprano’s customers in Australia are Telstra, Vodafone, National Australia Bank, Accor, Transurban, Visa and Qantas. Its technology has been used for television shows such as Australian Idol to support mass inbound SMS voting.
According to HT&E’s market announcement last week:
The transaction will create a global, market leading CPaaS player of scale, with complementary geographic and client coverage, best-in-class products and technology and the potential for material revenue and cost synergies.
Norwegian company, Link Mobility is acquiring 100% of Soprano for NOK 3,590 million, representing approximately AUD 560 million, through a combination of cash and equity.
The terms of the agreement values HT&E’s stake at approximately AUD 139 million. Under the current offer structure, HT&E would receive from LINK AUD 6.2 million cash upfront and shares resulting in HT&E owning a shareholding of approximately 6.15% in the combined Link/ Soprano business.
In addition, Soprano will also make a pre-transaction dividend payment of up to AUD 40 million of which HT&E would receive AUD 10 million.
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