Founding Shareholders Rebel Against Board in Software One Takeover Bid and Secure Control of Strategy

The group of founding shareholders led by Daniel von Stockar has successfully rebelled against the board of directors of Software One, an important Microsoft partner. The group includes René Gilli and Beat Curti’s holding company, who hold around 29 percent of the shares. They formed an alliance with Bain Capital, a financial investor who proposed taking over the group and delisting it from the stock exchange.

The old board of directors rejected Bain Capital’s proposal, which led to the successful revolt by the founding shareholders. Now, von Stockar will head the new management body, filled with people he has recommended. The plan is to develop Software One without the pressure from the financial market and improve its strategy for the future. Despite operational growth and profitability, Software One went public too early in 2019, according to von Stockar, and has not met expectations since.

The big question now is whether Bain Capital will launch a new official takeover offer. The last offer was rejected by the old board of directors, but the founding shareholders are interested in selling some of their securities to Bain. The company’s strategy, under the leadership of CEO Brian Duffy, includes expanding advice to corporate customers and helping them organize data transmission in the cloud. This consulting segment is growing faster than classic reselling and is expected to contribute more to sales in the future.

Overall, Software One is on the right track operationally