Datawatch Rallies On Altair Takeover Offer

Datawatch Corporation (NASDAQ: DWCH) shares were trading 35 percent higher Monday after Altair Engineering Inc (NASDAQ: ALTR) announced an agreement to acquire the software company.

What Happened

Altair and Datawatch announced their entrance into a definitive merger agreement for Altair to acquire Datawatch for $13.10 per share in cash, representing a fully diluted equity value of $176 million.

"Bringing Datawatch into Altair should result in a powerful offering consistent with our vision to transform product design and decision making by applying simulation, data science and optimization throughout product lifecycles," said Altair CEO James Scapa.

The merger brings a "convergence" of machine learning-driven simulation technology to live and historical sensor data, the exec said.

"Datawatch is a great team of people with best-in-class products, and we look forward to their joining us."

Why It Matters

The acquisition of Datawatch is compelling because the data analytics and data science markets are evolving rapidly, and the company’s solutions are highly relevant and applicable to almost any company and vertical market, according to Altair.

A strong opportunity exists to cross-sell Datawatch products into Altair's company’s primarily customer base of primarily manufacturers, the purchaser said.

What's Next

Following the tender offer, a wholly owned subsidiary of Altair will merge with and into Datawatch. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2018.

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