Member Info for thetruthhurts

-46.4%

Sorry to all who got sucked in here LP 41.5

Think these went down as Burberry went down. Tenuous link but both are luxury brands.

Nice tradeable drop - on its way back up again

Micro Focus admitted on Friday that it was in talks with interested parties including Bain Capital and Advent International, the private equity groups. But a patchy trading record and stretched valuation made the company an unattractive target, said analyst Jonathan Imlah. Almost two-thirds of Micro Focus’s revenues have stalled or are going backwards while successive cost-cutting programmes leave little scope to improve profit margins, he said. Mr Imlah also argued that a private equity house would have few paths to exit its investment. A third public listing for the company “looks highly improbable” while COBOL – the 50-year-old computer programming language that is Micro Focus’s speciality – “will be even longer in the tooth in three to five years”, he observed. These issues led Collins Stewart to argue that a bid price above 425p per share looked improbable. “If, as we suspect, the early expressions of interest turn out to be nothing more than that and no formal bid materialises, the shares are likely to fall back to around 325p,” Mr Imlah said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-25/micro-focus-in-buyout-talks-suggesting-software-steal-real-m-a.html http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9f7e1332-8508-11e0-871e-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss#axzz1NI96Vv00 2 conflicting views = no idea!

Warning - this share will drive you to drink LOl market tanking: up when nothing else is impossible to predict does its own thing ps had a few......................................

Update on potential offer and recent press speculation Further to the announcement of 26 April 2011 and recent press speculation, the Board of Micro Focus International plc ("Micro Focus" or "the Company", LSE: MCRO.L) confirms that it has received a number of preliminary, non-binding approaches which it has chosen to explore (including approaches from Bain Capital and Advent International). At this stage there can be no certainty that any offer for the Company will be forthcoming nor as to the price at which any offer might be made. This announcement has been made without the consent of Bain Capital and Advent International.

http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/201105201222110148H.html

Please respect FT.com's ts&cs and copyright policy which allow you to: share links; copy content for personal use; & redistribute limited extracts. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights or use this link to reference the article - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/687c8f74-824e-11e0-961e-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1Msube1b7 akeover battle for Micro Focus looms By Anousha Sakoui, Daniel Schaefer and Simon Mundy Published: May 19 2011 23:11 | Last updated: May 19 2011 23:11 Advent International has emerged as the second private equity suitor to approach Micro Focus about a potential takeover, people close to the situation said, prompting talk of a possible bid battle. The buy-out fund, with its headquarters in Boston, privately expressed its interest in the UK IT group following an approach in April by Bain Capital, another US-based private equity fund, one of the people said. EDITOR’S CHOICE FT Tech Hub - May-19 Bain approach intensifies Micro Focus debate - May-09 Bain set to launch bid for Micro Focus - Apr-28 Micro Focus slips as dealers await trade statement - Apr-27 Micro Focus jumps after tentative approach - Apr-26 Talks are at an early stage and neither Advent nor Bain has yet tabled a firm offer for the company. The latest approach has led some people familiar with the situation to raise the prospect of a potential takeover war. Micro Focus said on April 26 that it had received an approach about a possible takeover. Bain, which manages about $65bn (£40bn) in assets around the world, has no sector focus but has made a number of investments in the technology and software area. Advent, which manages $26bn of assets, also has a diverse portfolio of technology investments. People close to the talks said Bain approached Micro Focus during Easter. It is thought to be preparing a bid worth 425p-450p a share, a notable premium to the share price of 338p when it made the approach. Speculation about a takeover had already helped the shares rise more than 15 per cent in the week leading up to the Easter bank holiday weekend. They closed up 1.2 per cent at 369.8p on Thursday, valuing its equity at £728m. Yet the shares are still nearly a third below their peak in April last year, leading some analysts to believe it has become attractively priced for a private equity buy-out.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/687c8f74-824e-11e0-961e-00144feabdc0,s01=1.html#axzz1MsEJM7SZ

Micro Focus International Plc (MCRO) rallied 5.4 percent on speculation that Advent International Corp. may buy the U.K. software producer.

I held these shares years ago, back at 65p, they then dropped to 25p before exploding again so haven't given up on them. Cisco are huge in the US and have their own devices, but might like the geographical areas that Pace operate in.

I only thought Cisco after seeing this below - ie not proper research: IHS Screen Digest said Pace's solid 2010 was marked by its ability to grab market share from Motorola and Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and snare high-volume deals at Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and Net Servicios of Brazil. and I remembered that Cisco were at one stage looking for aquisitions such as BATM Other good news: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/13/lord-sugar-youview-set-top-box

Does anyone think that we are cheap enough atm to be considered for a buyout by Cisco?

The good news is that it seemed to bounce back off supports for now. The bad news is for the person who's just paid 13.56 after hours for 10576 shares

Now 8.5% down

Lindoser who do you reckon - private equity group ora competetor. Soneone just bought 1m

Thats the only reason I didn't chuck it all in and sell this morning!

We're also at nearly the level the directors bought in March after exercising their options