Jacksonville-based Web.com Group announced a deal July 13 to expand its presence in Australia by acquiring Webcentral Group Ltd.
Web.com, which provides website development services for businesses, expanded into Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia a year ago by acquiring Dreamscape Networks Ltd.
Webcentral will add about 330,000 small and medium-sized business customers in Australia to Web.com’s operations.
“The Webcentral acquisition further complements Web’s continued commitment to providing market-leading web presence solutions to customers across the globe,” Web.com CEO Sharon Rowlands said in a news release.
Web.com did not announce terms of the deal but publicly traded Webcentral said Web.com is paying about 12.2 million Australian dollars in cash to buy all of its shares, or about $8.5 million.
Webcentral had been seeking a possible acquisition since launching a strategic review of the business in Sept. 2019.
The Web.com deal “provides shareholders an opportunity to realize an immediate cash value for their investment and represents an attractive premium to the prevailing trading price of Webcentral shares,” Chairman Andrew Reitzer said in a new release.
The company said the buyout price is 21% higher than the stock’s average trading price in the last 30 days.
Web.com was publicly traded before being acquired by affiliates of private equity firm Siris Capital Group in 2018.
The companies hope to complete the deal in late 2020.