Real estate data powerhouse CoStar Group has made an offer to acquire Corelogic for $95.76 a share, roughly 20% higher than the accepted offer Stone Point Capital and Insight Partners made earlier this month.
By bidding over $95 a share, CoStar’s offer would value CoreLogic at $6.9 billion. In a letter to CoreLogic’s board, CEO Andy Florance said he was “stunned” to read that Stone Point and Insight’s offer had been accepted.
“We do not believe the pending transaction maximizes value for CoreLogic stockholders and we continue to believe in the strong strategic rationale for the combination of our two companies,” Florance said in the letter. “The fact that CoreLogic stock continues to trade well above the pending transaction price is a clear indication that the shareholders agree with us.”
CoreLogic had been battling with investors who jointly own or have an economic interest equivalent to approximately 15% of CoreLogic’s outstanding common stock since the summer. In a July letter sent to CoreLogic’s board of directors, Cannae Holdings and Senator Investment Group proposed buying the firm in an all-cash offer for $66 a share.
The investors dropped their takeover bid on Nov. 2 after CoreLogic confirmed it was exploring multiple offers to sell at or above $80 per share. Cannae and Senator still exerted pressure on shareholders to fully replace the board with their own nominees.
A compromise was reached on Nov. 24 following a proxy vote was held that replaced three of the 12 directors on CoreLogic’s board with that of the investment groups’ nominees.
Funds managed by Stone Point Capital and Insight Partners agreed to buy CoreLogic earlier this month in a deal with an equity value of about $6 billion. That came after CoStar made an offer worth $86 a share, according to Bloomberg calculations.
Under the terms of CoStar’s latest proposal, CoreLogic shareholders would receive 0.1019 shares of CoStar in exchange for each share of CoreLogic stock, representing a value of $95.76, Bloomberg reported.
If CoStar were to close the deal, it would represent the largest acquisition the Washington, D.C.-based firm has completed to date. CoStar has already spent billions acquiring other firms in recent years, including a $250 million buyout of Homesnap in November and a $190 million deal for Ten-X Commercial in March. Because of anti-trust issues, the firm often has to walk a tight rope with acquisitions. Its deal to acquire RentPath fell apart late last year after the Federal Trade Commission filed an antitrust complaint.
