- Stamps.com soared 65% on Friday after Thoma Bravo said it would acquire the online postage company.
- Shareholders of Stamps.com will receive $330 per share, representing a 67% premium from Thursday's closing price.
- The deal ends a volatile history for Stamps.com as a public company, in which it was often the target of short-sellers.
- Sign up here for our daily newsletter, 10 Things Before the Opening Bell.
Shares of Stamps.com soared as much as 65% on Friday after it agreed to be acquired by Thoma Bravo for $6.6 billion in cash.
Shareholders of the online postage company popular with e-commerce store owners will receive $330 per share, representing a 67% premium from Thursday's closing price of $197.72.
The deal ends a volatile history for Stamps.com as a public company. Its stock had often been the target of short-sellers, who argued that the company's deal with the US Postal Service was a significant money loser for the US government and that the contract would not be renewed.
That scenario played out in 2019, after Stamps.com ended its partnership with USPS. The stock went on to plummet more than 80% to a low of $32 in May of 2019. But a pivot from the company to work with other logistics providers like UPS, combined with a pandemic-induced surge in demand for its services, helped the stock recover all of its losses by August of 2020.
The acquisition price of $330 per share eclipses Stamps.com's all-time-high of $325. Short interest in Stamps.com has fallen to less than 5% of the share float.
The deal includes a 40-day "go shop" period, in which Stamps.com can search for a better acquisition offer from a different company. The deal has been approved by the board of directors of both companies and is expected to close in the third quarter