CompuCom Acquired By Platinum Equity

Under the agreement, CompuCom shareholders will receive $4.60 for each of the company's outstanding shares. That amount was under the $4.84 closing price of CompuCom shares on Thursday. CompuCom shares were down 7 percent, or 36 cents per share, to $4.48 after the deal was announced Friday morning.

Safeguard Scientifics, a diversified technology holding company, has a 58 percent voting interest in CompuCom and has agreed to vote its shares in favor of the deal.

"[With] Safeguard owning [more than] half the company, they have the authority to determine CompuCom's fate, and they have accepted this price of $4.60," said Brian Alexander, a vice president at investment firm Raymond James and Associates. "It seems to be an attractive price for the buyer."

Dallas-based CompuCom, a 17-year-old solution provider and an early channel pioneer, had steadily increased its services business in the past few years. CompuCom Chairman, President and CEO Edward Coleman said in a statement that he believes the deal will accelerate CompuCom's "transformation to an even stronger and more broadly-based IT solution provider." He also promised that CompuCom will continue to focus on combining its "technology acquisition and deployment capabilities with our national, high-quality IT services organization to meet clients' information systems needs."

CompuCom will be "a terrific addition" to Platinum Equity's portfolio of solutions and services businesses, said Platinum Chairman and CEO Tom Gores in a statement. "CompuCom is a leading provider of IT solutions to enterprise customers. It provides a strong complement to our other service and solutions businesses, and it will be an important platform company in our operations portfolio," he said.

The $5.5 billion privately held Platinum Equity has a diverse portfolio that includes companies in areas such as software, distribution and logistics, specialized business-process outsourcing and data/voice networking. The Los Angeles-based investment firm's holdings include CRM vendor iET Solutions, database vendor Gupta Technologies, IP management software vendor Process Software, supply chain logistics vendor Hays Logistics, and voice/data communications vendor Altura Communications Solutions.

The transaction is subject to regulatory approval, CompuCom and Safeguard shareholder approval, and the placement of $35 million in debt financing. The deal is expected to close late next quarter.