Appen shares plunge on Innodata takeover bid
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More news: Appen shares tumbled in early trading on the ASX, the morning after the software company confirmed it had received a takeover offer from US-based Innodata.
Shares were down 18.5% to $0.88 by 11:40am AEDT on Wednesday.
Appen was placed in a trading halt just before 1pm on Tuesday after the company's share price jumped 30.1% to $1.08, despite no announcements being made.
Appen receives takeover bid from US-based Innodata
More news: Appen has received a takeover bid from New Jersey-based Innodata. The software firm confirmed post-market close on Tuesday that the US digital data solutions firm has proposed a merger of the two companies in an all-stock deal. The proposal offers $0.70 worth of Innodata shares per Appen share, at a premium in excess of 100% of the Appen share price at the time the offer was made.
Appen said that its board is currently considering the offer, and has agreed to a limited exchange of non-public information on a non-exclusive basis.
Appen was placed in a trading halt just before 1pm on Tuesday after the ASX sent the company a price query request. Prior to the trading pause, Appen’s share price jumped 30.1% despite no announcements having been made.
ASX queries Appen as share price rockets 30%
The news: Appen has been placed in a trading halt after the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) sent the data services company a price query request.
The numbers: Prior to its trading pause at 12:56pm AEDT today, Appen’s share price rocketed 30.1% to $1.08 despite no announcements being made. The trading halt was still in place by 2:53pm AEDT.
Over the last 12 months, the company’s shares have fallen 55.74%.
The context: Appen’s share price has been volatile since the start of the year after it lost a $126 million contract with Google, suddenly replaced its CEO Armughan Ahmad with Ryan Kolln, and then announced a $60 million cost-cutting plan in February.
The sources: ASX announcement, Appen takeover offer announcement
