E2open ups ante in pursuit of Amber Road

Having had a $350 million offer for global trade management solutions company Amber Road rejected in February, E2open’s CEO wrote a letter this week to the company’s board of directors to engage on a deal.    The supply chain software provider E2open on Thursday publicly chastised the global trade management solutions company Amber Road for waving off its $350 million acquisition offer in February.
   E2open CEO Michael Farlekas sent a letter to Amber Road’s board of directors Wednesday, outlining his company’s inability to “establish a substantive dialogue” with the Amber Road’s management and board.
   Publicly-traded Amber Road, a provider of global transportation management, visibility and trade compliance tools, dismissed the unsolicited offer as being “not in the best interests of the company and its stockholders.”
   Farlekas lamented the lack of further discussion about a potential deal.
   “Our cash offer, representing a premium of more than 50 percent to the unaffected share price on Feb. 9, 2018, provides the company’s shareholders with a significant premium to your current market value, coupled with high certainty given E2open’s deep experience in the industry and our investors’ large capital base to fund a transaction,” he wrote in the letter. “We are eager to engage with the company immediately to discuss a potential transaction.”
   He said that other than a brief conversation with Amber Road Chairman Barry Williams on March 5 and a second rejection letter on March 9, E2open has had no engagement with Amber Road.
   “You have declined our repeated offers to engage in substantive discussions with you on the merits of our proposal, and it is not clear to us that you have engaged any outside advisors to help the company consider a potential combination with E2open,” the letter said. “Further, other than the brief conversation with Mr. Williams, we have been unable to establish any substantive dialogue with independent members of the company’s board of directors.”
   Farlekas further wrote that E2open has “received feedback from several of (Amber Road’s) largest shareholders expressing frustration that the company has not engaged with E2open. These same shareholders advised us that they had communicated to you verbally or in writing their desire for the company to engage with E2open in a potential transaction.”
   Amber Road declined to comment on the letter.