Squarespace to Go Private in $6.9B All-Cash Transaction with Permira ( investors.squarespace.com )

Stockholders will receive $44.00 per share in cash, which represents a premium of 29% over the 90-day volume weighted average trading price of $34.09 Squarespace, Inc. (NYSE: SQSP ), the design-driven platform helping entrepreneurs build brands and businesses online, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to go private by Permira, the global private equity firm, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $6.9 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Squarespace stockholders will receive $44.00 per share in cash representing a transaction valued at over $6.6 billion on an equity value basis and approximately $6.9 billion on an enterprise value basis. The purchase price represents a premium of approximately 29% over Squarespace's 90-day volume weighted average trading price, and a premium of 15% over Squarespace's closing share price of $38.19 on the NYSE on May 10, 2024. Upon completion of the transaction, Squarespace will become a privately held

cmrn ,

I want no part to do with them after they got all the Google domains—they’re not a company I would have willingly supported before, so I’m not about to now that I’ve been forced into it.

hightrix ,

This is just the public warning to stop using square space. Once the PE vultures are in, the product will be made worse and more expensive until it shuts down for lack of “profitability”and growth.

Bahnd ,

I dont know how to feel about this...

My domain got transfered to them from Google domains shutting down and now its being brought under a private equity umbrella... Something fucky.

foggy ,

Yeah the 1 2 punch reeks of sketchy business.

flumph ,
@flumph@programming.dev avatar

I switched all my domains to Porkbun. No way I'm hanging out in Squarespace land.

brbposting ,

I like their “I don’t like your name“ page

atocci ,
@atocci@kbin.social avatar

I switched to Cloudflare. Squarespace wasn't going to work for me.

aniki ,

I'd transfer if I were you. Pro-tip, never use the same company for hosting AND DNS. It gives one company way to much power.

Bahnd ,

Not worried about that, I self-host everything, its that Google domains were cheap, quiet, and handled the routing I needed, now... I dont know what to expect.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I'm with namecheap. Good enough for me.

MysticKetchup ,

What's the benefit of going private for a company that's owned by private equity? Like from a regular standpoint, not being subjected to the constant growth demands of shareholders is good, but I wouldn't think private equity cares about that as long as they're making money

wrekone ,

There will likely be no benefit for the employees or the users. For the PE firm, the goal is usually to pump up the value and resell or reenter the market, at a massive profit, in a few years. To do that, they'll have to make a lot of unpopular choices, such as layoffs and other cost cutting measures. If they're privately held, those choices have far less impact on the value of the company, since the stock market is heavily swayed by public perception.

KingThrillgore ,
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

Or if they can't do that, they'll load it up with the debt of its failed businesses and then let it loose to fail.

assembly ,

Probably going to be what happened to Toys R Us where the company currently has value but private equity will pull out cash and anything not bolted down and load up what remains with extreme amounts of debt before abandoning what remains. The skeleton of a company that remains will be viewed as unviable as it will have large amounts of debt and no cash once the vultures have stripped everything off.

foggy ,

Sometimes appeasing shareholders isn't good for business.

This would mean it is more likely that employees will see greater benefits. Certainly doesn't guarantee that, but without shareholders to appease, the workers have more leverage.

fuzzzerd ,

There are definitely still shareholders, they're just private.

foggy ,

Shareholders were bought out for $44.00 per share.

You're thinking about "investors" which are not the same as "shareholders".

There are no more shareholders. There are no more shades to hold.

athairmor ,

What? Private companies can and do sell shares of the company and people who own them are shareholders. The difference is that the shares aren’t traded on public markets.

People who own shares in publicly traded companies are also called investors.

Telodzrum ,

not being subjected to the constant growth demands of shareholders is good

ohhhhhhhhhhhhh man

You don't even want to know about the growth demands in the PE space. You'll be begging for shareholder growth-curve demands in about zero seconds.

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