Verint and Nice, the world’s two leading developers of civil defense monitoring solutions, are holding talks for a mega merger, Calcalist has learned.
Negotiations have been underway for over a month now. The deal’s estimated value is a whopping $1.5 billion in cash and stock.
Nice will use its hefty cash reserves to foot the bill for the acquisition which will create a $4 billion-worth civil defense leviathan. An agreement will necessitate anti-trust approvals from the numerous countries in which the two have business.
Verint is currently traded on a $1.25 billion market cap after catapulting 25% within the past two months. Negotiations reflect a 20%-25% premium over that value. Nice is traded on a $2.11 billion market value.
Verint, a developer of video and audio monitoring solutions and software analytical solutions for the defense and civilian markets, operates predominantly in the defense market (70%) whereas Nice, which deals in digital recording and retrieval solutions and communications systems for the intelligence services, makes 75% of its sales in the civilian market.
Both companies have similar operational results.
Due diligence is expected in the next several weeks, possibly by a neutral third party as the two companies are rivals.
Such a merger, at 38$-39$ per share, would yield a company which rakes in a staggering $1.5 billion a year.