Following its failed IPO, The Telegraph reports that financial software company SmartStream is poised to announce its acquisition by The Dubai International Financial Centre, which owns Dubai's stock exchange. It is not surprising to see SmartStream on the blocks following the failure of its IPO - companies often run a dual track process where they talk to trade buyers at the same time as going through the IPO process in case it doesn't get away. Discussions with DIFC may have been ongoing even before the IPO was pulled as a plan B. The valuation is interesting standing at a significant discount to the starting range for the IPO, but at a premium to the price at the end of the process which was rumoured to be as low as £150m. SmartStream's majority shareholder TA Associates may have felt that, having gone through the trauma of the IPO, it was committed to an exit. If the deal does announce in the next day or so, TA can focus its attentions on the other current transaction in its portfolio - the IPO of Sophos in which it owns 20%.
