Whispir (ASX: WSP) shares are up 62% this morning. The increase in WSP shares comes from a takeover bid by Soprano Design. The thing is, the bid is at 48 cents, the share price is now 49 cents. Yes, it’s possible to have a look at more detail here, to think about who and how and the business lines and all that. But that price alone tells us that the market thinks there might be more about to happen. The market could be wrong of course, but the price itself is information.
As to what Whispir actually does: “Whispir Limited, a communications intelligence company, offers communications-as-a service platform in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, and North America. Its no-code platform provides omnichannel interactions between organizations, systems, and people through email, SMS, voice calls, social media, and other messaging apps.”
There’s long been an assumption that a combination would make sense for the two companies. Thus this bid: “Australian communications platform-as-a-service (CPaaS) vendor Soprano Design has put forward an off-market takeover bid to purchase Whispir for approximately $63 million. The deal price is placed at $0.48 per Whispir share.”
Whispir share price from Google Finance
The issue for us is whether there’s still something there. Soprano has built a decent enough stake already, 15%. But the shareholdings in Whispir are pretty concentrated: “Whispir’s other substantial shareholders include Pinnacle Investment management (7.6 per cent), AustralianSuper (5.9 per cent) and Whispir chief executive Jeromy Wells (9.5 per cent). AustralianSuper sold down from 7.1 per cent last Monday at 30¢ per share.”
Soprano doesn’t need to convince that many people in order to have a near unassailable position. But still the share price is above that cash bid - and the only reason to raise it would be if there’s another bidder: “The Offer Price of $0.48 per Share is best and final and will not be increased, in the absence of an alternative proposal or a competing proposal.”
Now, the market is pricing in at least the possibility that there will be another bidder - something that will force an increased offer from Soprano Design. The question for us is whether we believe as does the rest of the market?