Blackbaud’s largest shareholder, Clearlake Capital Group, has made another offer to take the fundraising and tech firm private. The $4.3 billion cash offer comes one year after Clearlake’s unsolicited $4 billion offer was rejected by Blackbaud’s board.
It also comes a few weeks after Blackbaud’s board voted to repeal a “poison pill” it adopted in October 2023 to prevent any entity from acquiring a stake of more than 20%. Clearlake already owns an 18.3% stake in Blackbaud, according to data from the London Stock Exchange Group.
The offer last year was approximately $71 per share, with the new offer increasing that to $80 per share. International financial services firm Baird now projects that a stock deal might go to $90 per share.
Blackbaud is a public company traded on the NADAQ exchange under the symbol BLKB. Blackbaud has a market capitalization of $4.1 billion. The stock price today was $78.45 in early trading, down 68 cents per share.
Clearlake did not respond to a request for comment. Blackbaud released a statement acknowledging what was termed “an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from Clearlake Capital Group, L.P., a current stockholder of the company, to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Blackbaud for $80.00 per share in cash.”
The statement went on: “Consistent with its fiduciary duties and in consultation with its independent financial and legal advisors, the Blackbaud Board of Directors will carefully evaluate the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Blackbaud stockholders. Blackbaud stockholders are not required to take any action at this time.”
It has been a busy year at Blackbaud since the initial offer. The firm agreed to pay $49.5 million to settle with 49 states and the District of Columbia after its 2020 data breach. California is not a party to the settlement. Blackbaud agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) $3 million to settle allegations of allegedly misleading disclosures concerning the ransomware attack. Customers are petitioning to sue seeking class action status.
Blackbaud also announced a $500 million stock buyback this past January and its CEO, Michael Gianoni, was arrested in February for suspicion of driving under the influence, which he is contesting in court.
Clearlake Capital Group also has been busy. Clearlake and Insight Partners last month acquired Alteryx, Inc., an artificial intelligence for enterprise analytics firm. The transaction was announced on December 18, 2023 and approved by the Alteryx stockholders on March 12, 2024. Alteryx shareholders will receive $48.25 in cash for each share of Alteryx Class A and Class B common stock. The firm is now privately owned.
