bloggingbuyouts

Another private equity deal is crumbling. Acxiom (NASDAQ: ACXM), which was to be bought out by ValueAct Capital Partners LP and Silver Lake Partners for $2.25 billion , is now negotiating break-up fees with the firms. The private equity companies had made a $27.10 in cash offer for the data management company.

According to The Wall Street Journal "one of the issues likely to be discussed is whether the company has breached the deal's material adverse-effect clause." Operating income at the company did drop 89% in the June quarter and the company has made some lay-offs.

But, Acxiom's board may believe that one weak quarter is not material, especially if the trend of the company's business is up. At some point one of the private equity withdrawals is likely to bring a large suit both from a company and its shareholders.

Acxiom's stock holders are facing a share price that is below $20 and will probably drop further on the announcement. They may not take kindly to that.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

The trend of private equity firms buying out high tech companies continues. According to Bloomberg News, Silver Lake Partners and TPG will take Avaya Inc. (NYSE: AV) private for $8.2 billion -- the biggest LBO of a computer networking firm ever.

Investors will receive $17.50 a share. That's 4.7% more than yesterday's closing price and 28% more than before speculation about a purchase surfaced on May 29.

This is the latest in a string of high tech LBOs. Recent ones include:

• Acxiom Corp. (NASDAQ: ACXM): This computer and database services provider said May 16 it's being bought by Silver Lake and ValueAct Capital Partners LP for about $2.24 billion.
• Alltel Corp. (NYSE: AT): The fifth-biggest U.S. wireless service agreed May 21 to be bought by TPG and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) for $27.5 billion.
• CDW Corp (NASDAQ: CDWC) agreed on May 30 to be acquired by Madison Dearborn Partners LLC for $7.3 billion.

I am not sold on the competitive advantages that will result from this deal. Maybe there's some overhead to be cut but I question how much private equity is willing to invest in R&D to jump start Avaya's product pipeline.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned in this post.

Over the past year, the activist hedge fund ValueAct Capital Partners waged a proxy fight against Acxiom Corp. (NYSE: ACXM) and ultimately got a board seat. By having a board seat, not only did ValueAct have some leverage, but I'm sure had a much better understanding of the company.

Well, now for the payoff: Acxiom has agreed to a $2.25 billion buyout.

Interestingly enough, ValueAct has partnered with the traditional private equity firm Silver Lake Partners to pull off the deal.

Acxiom has extensive databases and analytics to help companies with their marketing programs. In fact, it's similar to Alliance Data Systems (NYSE: ADS), which agreed to a $7.8 billion buyout today from the Blackstone Group.

These types of companies tend to have long-term contracts and cater to necessary business functions. Thus, it makes it easier to pile on debt and do leveraged buyouts.

On news of the deal, Acxiom's stock price spiked 15.29% to $27.29 per share. Although, the buyout offer is for $27.10. Thus, it looks like the Street thinks another bidder may come to the table.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.