Website builder Square Space is no longer a publicly traded company, after private equity firm Permira acquired all of the company's remaining common stock.
Permira first revealed its plans to acquire Squarespace in May, offering shareholders of the NYSE-listed company $44 per share, which equated to a $6.6 billion equity valuation and enterprise valuation. of 6.9 billion dollars. However, proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Companies (ISS) recommended that Squarespace shareholders reject the offer, on the grounds that the transaction did not maximize shareholder value, especially given that Squarespace's financial prospects were very solid.
And then Permira raised its offer last month to $46.50 per share, representing a valuation of about $7.2 billion. On Monday Permira announced that it had successfully purchased the majority of the shares and that it would be completing a second-step merger to acquire all outstanding shares from the remaining shareholders who did not participate in the public offering, and that step is now complete.
On Tuesday, Squarespace also completed the sale of its Tock restaurant reservation service to American Specific, in a deal valued at $400 million.
Founded in 2004 by Antonio Casalena, Squarespace is a code-free platform for SMEs and freelancers to create websites, blogs and online stores. The company filed to go public in 2021, reaching a peak market capitalization of $8 billion, well below its peak private valuation of $10 billion. However, the company's market capitalization plummeted to $2 billion in 2022, before breaching the $5 billion mark again. thanks to strong profits.
Permira's winning bid represents a 36.4% premium over the average price of the three months prior to the transaction's announcement in May. It is also one of the largest private deals of 2024.
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