DARMSTADT/MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - The technology investor Silver Lake wants to delist Darmstadt-based Software AG from the stock exchange as planned. The US company would then have paid a total of just under 2.4 billion euros for the former MDax company. Software AG is now recouping most of this sum by selling two of its most important products. The company is selling its AI-supported integration platform Super iPaaS with Streamsets and Webmethods to the US company IBM for a good 2.1 billion euros. According to company circles, up to 2,000 employees are affected - primarily in the USA.

The news was received positively on the stock market. Software AG shares rose by 1.9 percent to 32.42 euros by early afternoon - and were thus trading above the 32 euros that Silver Lake is offering the remaining minority shareholders for their shares.

In the morning, Silver Lake and its special purpose vehicle Mosel Bidco had announced that they wanted to buy out the remaining minority shareholders of Software AG. The bid thus corresponds exactly to the unit price that Silver Lake already paid when it acquired almost 85 percent of Software AG shares. In the meantime, Silver Lake has increased its stake to more than 93 percent.

The delisting offer will not contain any closing conditions and will commence shortly after approval by the German financial supervisory authority Bafin. The acceptance period is four weeks. "There will be no further acceptance period," Silver Lake clarified. After the delisting, shareholders were no longer able to trade their shares on regulated stock exchanges and no longer received financial reporting.

Meanwhile, Software AG is selling its integration platform Super iPass and thus its subsidiaries Webmethods and Streamsets to IBM. According to company circles, up to 2000 of the group's approximately 5000 employees are likely to move to IBM. However, this mainly affects employees in the USA - and comparatively few in Germany. Software AG took over the US company Streamsets only last year.

In view of IBM's size and its focus on the hybrid cloud and AI, the Software AG team will have "a great opportunity" to further develop the offering with the new owner, said Software AG CEO Sanjay Brahmawar.

The AI-supported integration platform Super iPass brings together programming interfaces (API), applications and data, among other things. The deal is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2024, subject to the necessary regulatory approvals./stw/mis/jha/