With software for retail companies, GK from Thuringia secures a solid market position and becomes an employer for more than 1000 employees. Now the two company founders want to sell their company to Fujitsu. On the stock market, investors are vying for the paper.

The Japanese Fujitsu Group reaches for the Saxon software specialist GK Software. A takeover bid is planned at a unit price of 190 euros per GK share, as both sides announced. This corresponds to a premium of almost 35 percent on the volume-weighted Xetra average price of the past three months, explained GK Software. The total transaction value is around 432 million euros. The day before, GK Software left Xetra trading at a price of 145 euros. In the morning, the papers had been suspended from trading for an hour. They then traded more than a third higher.

The minimum acceptance threshold of 55 percent of the capital for the takeover to take place should not pose a major hurdle for Fujitsu, since the GK founders, company founders Rainer Gläß and Stephan Kronmüller, have committed to all of the shares they hold – a total of 40.65 percent of the capital – to be transferred to the buyer. If the offer is successful, Gläß will also resign from the board of directors of the company from Schöneck in Vogtland.

The GK board of directors negotiated an agreement with Fujitsu according to which the Japanese should not conclude a domination agreement for at least the next two years and Schöneck should remain the company headquarters in the long term. Gläß said it was important to him and Kronmüller to find a strategic partner who would develop GK further. “I am delighted that GK’s growth story will continue as part of one of the largest IT companies in the world.”

Founded in 1990, GK Software specializes in cloud-based software solutions and services for operating branches of large retailers. Customers include Aldi, Hornbach, Migros and Walmart International. According to the company, it employs more than 1,100 people. It has been listed on the stock exchange since 2008.