Pivotal Rejects Chinadotcom Bid

Toronto-based CRM provider Pivotal Corp. on Wednesday rejected a takeover bid from a Chinadotcom Corp. subsidiary because it included too many conditions.

Pivotal said it would instead support an all-cash offer from VC outfit Oak Investment Partners which is valued in the range of $47 million. The offer from Chinadotcom-owned CDC Software was valued in the range of $57 million.

Pivotal said the Oak Investment transaction had fewer conditions and would close upon approval of shareholders and the British Columbia Supreme Court. The shareholder meeting to vote, originally set for
Tuesday, has been rescheduled for Nov. 21.

At the meeting, shareholder will decide between Oak’s all-cash offer or Chinadotcom’s cash-and-stock deal.

Pivotal also rejected an unsolicited bid from Onyx Software .

In a statement reiterating its “conditional proposal,” Chinadotcom insisted the majority of the conditions cited in Pivotal’s rejection “are substantially the same as those set out in the Pivotal agreement with the Oak/Talisma Group.”

“As CDC Software was not included in the solicitation of offers conducted by Pivotal’s financial advisor despite various efforts to do so and as Pivotal is currently not able to provide it with due diligence materials, it is important that actual due diligence be conducted prior to the signing of a definitive agreement,” Chinadotcom added.

Pivotal, which specializes in CRM software, offers a suite of marketing, sales, service and partner management tools. Chinadotcom’s CDC Software already has ERP, Supply Chain Management, Human Resources and Payroll product offerings and the acquisition bid was made to add Pivotal’s CRM suite.

CDC Software recently took a controlling stake in Industri Matematik International, a provider of SCM software and its financial performance management and business intelligence application.