Micro Focus Share Discussion Threads

[ringer12] 15/9/2016 21:54

Is 2019 the earliest date for exercising all these directors share options already held or it just for the latest options?

Nice little earners if the share price keeps increasing especially when they're free!

[m4ybe] 15/9/2016 14:51

Yes 50.1%, haha. Share price having a go at rising after directors choosing yesterday's level to get next share options.

[sogoesit] 15/9/2016 14:27

As mentioned above the 50.1% (not 51%!) is irrelevant.
The deal was struck on equivalent earnings; 50/50... with double the shares having double the earnings. My calcs. said value £22 (post 2816) ... or thereabouts.
The play is in more than doubling the HPE Software margins. In doing so the upside in next year to 18 months or so is £35.

The risk is in the execution, apart from whether the deal will complete.
Mike Lynch, of old Autonomy, was on Sky News a day or so ago saying he knew the Loosemore management team and had confidence that they knew how to manage legacy software situations.

That's the play; you believe in it or you don't. Meanwhile the Attachmate & Serena merger and purchase still haven't played out so there is potential upside there. Loosemore has said he wants to return to the company being a cash return machine and that hasn't yet been accomplished.

[m4ybe] 14/9/2016 21:48

HPE share price looking good relative to the market today, so hopefully it will reflect well on MCRO that they'll (initially) soon have 51% of...

[m4ybe] 14/9/2016 21:46

Shhh, but just wait for the first round of employee share options that dilute the share price such that those holding 51% become under 50%. The 51% is to get the vote through at HPE, but before long MCRO holders will have the majority IMO.

[montyhedge] 14/9/2016 17:24

Are we the chicken or the pig?One day a chicken says to a pig, hey eggs and bacon egg selling so well for breakfast, if we merge we would make a fortune. Great says the pig, I'm up for that.Then the pig thinks, hang on if we get together, you can lay eggs everyday, but I get carved up.That's why I called it a merger and not a takeover says the chicken.So we end up with less than 50% of the new entity?I just hope this not a deal to far. Any thoughts guys.

[montyhedge] 13/9/2016 16:29

His bet the ranch hope his right.

[montyhedge] 13/9/2016 16:02

The Times today saying a revolt by some big shareholders about future pay linked to deals. They don't want directors doing deals just because they get more money.I don't have a problem with that acquiring companies as long as they are the right ones. Lol

[montyhedge] 12/9/2016 13:47

I may do, I love Micro Focus made lots of money, just worried on this deal its massive, his bet the ranch on this in my mind. The dispute between HP and Autonomy was not good, with a can of worms. Even Jim Chanos years ago shorted Autonomy. I must admit I could not see a reference to Autonomy in this takeover.
I know deal being funded by debt and HP shareholders getting Micro shares, if I read it right, will they be sellers like the Wizard deal who sold?
Kevin Loosemoore knows what his doing and I hope all works out, sure it will.

[phillis] 12/9/2016 11:59

you post too much

[montyhedge] 12/9/2016 08:59

If Dow and FTSE 100 continue to fall, I see us back below 2000p.

[montyhedge] 12/9/2016 08:14

Normally a bidder shareprice falls, so when this went up. I was amazed. I like Micro but don't like the Dow and Footsie everything goes down when the indexes get hit.

[umitw] 12/9/2016 08:08

Holding up well, considering the market condition!

[montyhedge] 09/9/2016 19:31

His bet the farm, I just hope not the one deal to far.

[montyhedge] 09/9/2016 14:38

Credit Suisse saying 2150p.

[phillis] 09/9/2016 13:53

there is no placing!
HP are being issued ADRs

How long does it take you to understand?

[diku] 09/9/2016 13:51

Big deals are done when complacency sets in....

[orange1] 09/9/2016 13:36

montyhedge9 Sep '16 - 13:22 - 2842 of 2842

Kevin Loosemoore as bet the farm on this deal, lets hope its not the deal that comes unstuck. Time will tell, I sold knowing there must be some kind of fund raising.

----
Worth remembering the next time the little twerp pretends that he has held the shares since they were 645p. Note also that "he knows that there will be a fund raising". No surprise there: if he can't understand announcements about promotion to and demotion from the FTSE 100 he certainly can't understand announcements about how an acquisition has been structured. A mouse-eaten weed if ever there was one.

[montyhedge] 09/9/2016 13:22

Kevin Loosemoore as bet the farm on this deal, lets hope its not the deal that comes unstuck. Time will tell, I sold knowing there must be some kind of fund raising.

[montyhedge] 09/9/2016 11:14

Get some in a placing lol

Its seems big boys sell, knowing they will in the placing and get the shares back cheaper.

[montyhedge] 09/9/2016 11:14

Already taken profits.

[diku] 09/9/2016 10:38

monty...you know your heart telling you to sell & take profits...but your mind telling you more paper profits ahead!...hope you not too confused...

[sogoesit] 09/9/2016 10:34

Wall Street Journal is more upbeat:

"Why Investors Have High Hopes For HPE Software Under Micro Focus
The U.K. company’s record suggests it can cut costs—though the scale of HPE’s business is a new challenge

By STEPHEN WILMOT
Sept. 8, 2016 10:00 a.m. ET
0 COMMENTS
Not all technology companies obsess about growth. U.K.-based software group Micro Focus has made a virtue out of managing decline. That will probably make it a good parent for HP Enterprise’s mature software business, which includes the vestiges of the disastrous Autonomy acquisition.

Micro Focus’s current strategy is the product of a couple of profit warnings that forced Chairman Kevin Loosemore to take executive control in April 2011. Mr. Loosemore concluded that boosting growth wasn’t possible for many of Micro Focus’s IT infrastructure products, which provide companies with basic technological plumbing. So he focused instead on the bottom line. The company cut costs previously spent chasing growth, and worked to prolong the life of old software by providing maintenance and stitching new fast-growing applications onto it.

Micro Focus brought this approach to Attachmate, a Seattle-based software company it bought for $1.2 billion in stock in September 2014. The deal tripled the company’s size, and at the time Mr. Loosemore said he wouldn’t look for new acquisitions for at least 24 months. Just under 24 months later, the $8.8 billion HP Enterprise deal announced late Wednesday follows the same model. HPE shareholders will end up owning just over half of Micro Focus.



The latest deal is more expensive: It works out at 11.4 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, compared with 7.5 times for Attachmate. That puts Micro Focus under more pressure to cut costs.

Attachmate’s Ebitda margin was 33% on acquisition; that of HPE’s software business is 21%. Mr. Loosemore reckons he can lift the margin on HPE’s mature assets (accounting for four-fifths of the total) up to Micro Focus’s level of 46% within three years following completion, expected next summer. He won’t need HPE’s corporate jets or Star Trek-related movie commercials, he told analysts.


Investors are betting Micro Focus can pull off the trick; the shares leapt at the London open. That’s sensible based on its record: The shares closed at £19.55 on Wednesday, more than double the pre-Attachmate price. The risk concerns scale: HPE’s software business is quadruple the size of Attachmate’s, and Micro Focus is targeting a much greater margin improvement.

The low-profile Mr. Loosemore now needs to persuade new U.S. investors unfamiliar with Micro Focus that he is up to this challenge. Presumably without a corporate jet.

Write to Stephen Wilmot at [e-mail]

[montyhedge] 09/9/2016 10:17

Disappointing article I thought The Times today, saying his bet the farm on this deal. Credit Suisse saying 2150p.I hope this not a deal to far.