Thomson Reuters Corp. TRI-T said on Thursday it has offered to buy Swedish e-invoicing and tax solutions company Pagero for 6.4-billion crowns (about $840-million), topping an earlier offer from U.S. tax technology firm Vertex.
Thomson Reuters offered to pay 40 crowns ($5.22) in cash for each Pagero share, which is a premium of 11 per cent to the stock’s close on Wednesday and higher than Vertex’s offer of 36 crowns ($4.70) per share.
Pagero, whose services involve digitizing and automating accounts processes, said an independent bid committee of its board switched its recommendation from Vertex’s offer to the Thomson Reuters offer.
Thomson Reuters, which owns the Checkpoint tax and accounting service, said Pagero’s e-invoicing compliance capabilities would expand its indirect tax offerings.
Thomson Reuters, which also owns the Westlaw legal database and Reuters news agency, has made multiple deals in the past few years.
In May last year, the company’s CFO told Reuters News that it will have a US$10-billion M&A budget until 2025. Since then, it has announced two acquisitions.
The first was Britain-based Imagen, a digital content asset management company, for an undisclosed price and the second was California-based Casetext, which helps legal professionals conduct research, analysis and prepare documents using generative AI, for US$650-million.
In 2022, Thomson Reuters bought SurePrep LLC, a U.S.-based provider of tax automation software and services, for US$500-million in cash.
The acceptance period for the Pagero offer starts on or around Jan. 12 and ends on or around Feb. 9, Thomson Reuters said.
Woodbridge Co. Ltd., the Thomson family holding company and controlling shareholder of Thomson Reuters, also owns The Globe and Mail.