Clearlake Capital Group L.P. announced Aug. 26 that it completed its $7.7 billion acquisition of Jacksonville-based business data firm Dun & Bradstreet Holdings Inc.
Santa Monica, California-based Clearlake said that Dun & Bradstreet stockholders will receive $9.15 in cash for each share of common stock. It said that Dun & Bradstreet is now a privately held company, that its stock has ceased trading and it will be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
Dun & Bradstreet announced the deal March 24 and the company’s shareholders approved it June 12.
The sale was well below Dun & Bradstreet’s initial public offering price of $22 a share in July 2020. It was also below its closing price of $10.29 on Aug. 1, 2024, before news leaked out that the company was talking to potential buyers.
Dun & Bradstreet’s largest shareholder, Cannae Holdings Inc., pledged to support the deal with Clearlake when the agreement was signed.
Dun & Bradstreet was acquired in 2019 by an investment group led by Cannae CEO and Fidelity Chairman Bill Foley.
Cannae, which owns 13.5% of the stock, is the investment company spun off from Jacksonville-based Fidelity National Financial Inc.
With its connections to Jacksonville, it moved the Dun & Bradstreet headquarters to the city in 2021.
Dun & Bradstreet acquired the 218,700-square-foot Town Center Two building at 5335 Gate Parkway, across Butler Boulevard from St. Johns Town Center, for its headquarters.
Clearlake and Dun & Bradstreet have not commented in the past about plans for the headquarters.
A spokesperson for Clearlake said Aug. 26 the company would decline comment.
Clearlake said its financial advisers included Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Rothschild & Co., Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Santander and Wells Fargo.
Joint lead arrangers in financing the transaction were Ares Capital Management, Morgan Stanley, Golub Capital, Blue Owl Credit and Clearlake.
Chicago-based Sidley Austin LLP served as Clearlake’s legal counsel.
Bank of America Securities served as financial adviser to Dun & Bradstreet. New York-based Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP served as its legal counsel.
Dun & Bradstreet says it is a “leading global provider of business decisioning data and analytics, enables companies around the world to improve their business performance.”
Founded in 2006, Clearlake Capital Group says it is a global investment firm with more than $90 billion of assets under management.
Clearlake has offices in Santa Monica, Dallas, London, Dublin, Luxembourg, Abu Dhabi and Singapore.
Contributing writer Mark Basch contributed to this report.
Updated with a response from Clearlake.