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Sydney-headquartered customer engagement platform Pendula has weighed in to the fight for control of communications Software as a Service business Whispir (ASX: WSP), submitting a letter of intent to rival an existing $63 million offer from Soprano Design.
Pendula, which is the trading name for Zipline Cloud Pty Ltd, says its non-binding, indicative offer will be at a premium to Soprano's bid price of 48c per Whispir share.
"The Pendula LOI (letter of intent) states that its intention is to execute the acquisition of Whispir shares through a scheme of arrangement or an acquisition of Whispir's main undertaking, or a combination of these two acquisition structures," Melbourne-headquartered Whispir states in an announcement to the ASX this morning.
"The consideration proposed to be offered by Pendula is expected to be either all-cash or, alternatively, a combination of cash and scrip."
Pendula has undertaken preliminary due diligence on the Whispir business, and expects to submit a proposal by the close of business on Friday, 8 December.
WSP shares have jumped 10.2 per cent on the news to reach 54c at the time of writing, but the board of Whispir has emphasised there is no certainty that the LOI will lead to a binding offer from Pendula on the same or similar terms, or at all.
Founded in 2016 by its CEO Alex Colvin, Pendula reached a milestone of managing more than 20 million conversations by the time it raised $6.75 million in a Series B round in August 2021, with MA Financial Services (ASX: MAF) tipping in $5 million of that amount alongside existing backer Equity Venture Partners.
Whispir turned to public markets for its expansion ambitions with an initial public offering (IPO) in mid-2019 - the same year that EVP invested in Pendula. The listing brought in gross proceeds of $47 million and gave Whispir a market capitalisation at the time of $163 million.
Whispir's platform automates communications between organisations and people, whether it be through SMS messages, emails, landing pages, social media or other channels; an offering that saw it surge in value during the pandemic, but the company has since come back down to earth with a large drop in revenue and deepened losses in FY23.
It has now been more than a year since the company started to withdraw resources from its US operations in November 2022 in order to cut costs, and more recently in mid-2023 Whispir also secured a $7.5 million debt facility with RiverFort Capital amidst improving margins.
In October, Whispir's founder Jeromy Wells resigned from the role of CEO, but will remain in the position before transitioning to executive director.
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