user: Tibco Software Agrees to Sell Itself to a Private Equity Firm for $4.3 Billion

NEW YORK — Tibco Software, an enterprise software company based in Silicon Valley, agreed Monday to sell itself to Vista Equity Partners for $4.3 billion in the largest buyout in the technology industry this year.

The sale comes after a difficult year for Tibco, which has faced declining profits and pressure from an activist investor to sell.

In the most recent quarter, Tibco said profit fell to $1.5 million from more than $8.8 million in the period a year earlier. Tibco’s stock has fallen 23 percent in the last year.

“As a private company, Tibco will have added flexibility to serve our customers and execute on our long-term strategy,” Vivek Ranadivé, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement. “We are excited to work with our new partners at Vista and enter our next chapter of growth and industry leadership.”

Vista will pay $24 a share, 26 percent above Tibco’s closing price of $19.51 on Friday. Vista beat out a number of bidders, including strategic buyers and other buyout firms that were interested in Tibco.

Vista, led by Robert F. Smith, specializes in buying and turning around software companies. The firm has about $13 billion in assets under management and has generated some of the best returns of any private equity firm in recent years.

“We worked hard to make this deal happen because we understand the tremendous value that Tibco can bring to its customers and the marketplace as a private company,’’ Smith said. “We are incredibly excited to help Tibco reach its full potential.”

The deal will have to be approved by Tibco shareholders. Its stock was trading above $30 a share in 2012.

Summary: NEW YORK — Tibco Software, an enterprise software company based in Silicon Valley in California, agreed Monday to sell itself to Vista Equity Partners for $4.3 billion in the largest buyout in the technology industry this year.


Q: Plant said to boost mood, quell hunger gets pharm attention

JOHANNESBURG (AP)  For hundreds of years, indigenous South Africans have chewed a plant they say reduces stress, relieves hunger, sedates and elevates moods. Now they have a license to study and market it, and plan to sell it over-the-counter worldwide.

Researchers say the plant, called sceletium tortuosum, has great potential and could also help boost the local economy. Still, the American pharmaceutical company working on the project says it doesn't know whether the plant has been approved by U.S. regulators or how soon it may be available to consumers.

On Friday, South Africa's environmental minister traveled to the country's arid southwest where the plant is found to celebrate the issuing of the first license of an indigenous plant to the South African company HGH Pharmaceuticals.

HGH has not registered the product, which they will market as a dietary supplement, in any country, as the company is still compiling scientific and technical data, said Nigel Gericke, director of research at HGH.

"We're positioning (the product) for everyday people who are having a stressful time in the office, feeling a bit of social anxiety, tension or in a low mood," Gericke said.

The plant — known within South Africa as Kanna, Channa or Kougoed — has been used by the San people to reduce hunger, thirst and fatigue and is said to have sedative, hypnotic and mood-elevating effects. It is commonly chewed, but also can be made into tea or smoked.

Ben-Erik Van Wyk, a professor of botany and plant biotechnology at the University of Johannesburg, said he's extensively researched the plant and found no ill effects or evidence of dependency.

Van Wyk, who has worked with a researcher at the company that will be marketing it but is not involved in the project, said he hopes the plant may draw attention to the wisdom of the ancient San people, sometimes referred to as Bushmen.

When chewed, the plant gives a slight head rush, which is similar to the effect of smoking a cigarette, Van Wyk said.

"It's a product with huge potential," he said. "Anyone who has chewed it and has experienced the sensation of the plant definitely knows there's something happening."

"So often traditional remedies are looked down upon as old-fashioned and outdated," Van Wyk added. "If this product becomes a huge success, the culture will become more respected and better known."

Gericke first read about the plant in 1985 while paging through a botanical book in a public library in Australia. When he returned home to South Africa, he and a psychiatrist visited regions of the San people to research doses and side effects.

HGH has an agreement with Morristown, New Jersey-based P.L. Thomas &amp; Co, which plans to launch the product in 2011, said spokeswoman Paula Nurnberger.

It may be some time before consumers get a chance to try a pill containing the plant's extracts, which they hope to market over-the-counter as Zembrin. Nurnberger said she does not know whether the product has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

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A: American pharmaceutical company says it doesn't know whether an indigenous South African plant has been approved by U.S. regulators or how soon it may be available to consumers. It's said to reduce stress, relieve hunger, sedate and elevate moods...


Problem: Everton 4-1 Wolfsburg: Europa League - as it happened

“We cannot stand still,” said Roberto Martínez on Everton’s desire to build a stadium in Walton Hall Park, less than a mile from the club’s historic home at Goodison Park. The sentiment also applies to the team who last season recorded Everton’s highest points tally of the Premier League era. For that development, their manager has designs on Warsaw.

The Polish capital will host this season’s Europa League final, now offering the significant bonus of a Champions League place for the winner, and though it is not in Martínez’s nature to get ahead of himself, there has been no disguising the importance he has placed on a frequently maligned competition. He began talking European squad numbers late last season, selected pre-season friendlies with continental challenges in mind and views the Europa League as essential to Everton’s progress. “We really want to go all the way in the Europa League,” he said.

There have been no grumblings about the Europa workload allowed at Goodison. Even a demanding group containing Wolfsburg, Thursday’s opening opponents, Lille and Krasnodar, the Russian conquerors of Real Sociedad in the play-offs, is merely an incentive to Martínez on his European debut as a manager.

“We are very excited, as you can imagine, and we have been working hard for over 12 months to achieve this opportunity,” he said of Everton’s first European tie in five seasons. Their last was a 4-2 aggregate defeat to Sporting Lisbon in the last 32 of the Europa League in February 2010.

“The Europa League is a great competition and is where we need to be testing ourselves. The only way to fulfil our potential is to be playing games like the one we are going to face on Thursday. The draw has been kind in that it will bring two phenomenal football teams with the quality of Lille and Wolfsburg to Goodison, and then a really surprising package of Krasnodar. In terms of the group stage, it’s a phenomenal challenge for us. But that’s what we want at Everton. We embrace playing in Europe.”

Write a one or two sentence summary.

Summary:

assistant: Minute-by-minute report: Everton romped to a handsome win against Wolfsburg to get their Europa League campaign under way in supreme style