Pitney Bowes to Sell Software Solutions Business to Syncsort for $700 Million in Cash, Reduces Guidance from Divestiture and Tariffs

Key Points

On August 26, 2019, Pitney Bowes announced a definitive agreement to sell its Software Solutions business to Syncsort for $700 million in cash.

• Syncsort, located in Pearl River, NY, is a global software company specializing in big data, high-speed sorting products, and data integration software and services, including Hadoop, for platforms including Windows, UNIX, Linux, and mainframes.
• The divestiture will enable the company to part with a non-core, lower-margin business and enable management to focus on its core shipping, mailing and related financial services businesses.
• Pitney Bowes expects the divestiture to be earnings neutral in the 12 months following the closing of the transaction. Due to the divestiture and the impact of a higher level of tariffs, the company now expects 2019 revenue growth of 1-2% (down from 1-3%) and adjusted EPS of $0.65-0.75 (down from $0.90-1.05)
• The transaction is expected to close by the end of the calendar year.