Kofax to be acquired by Lexmark

Lexmark International, Inc. (NYSE: LXK) and Kofax Limited (NASDAQ and LSE: KFX) today announced that the two companies have entered into a merger agreement in which Lexmark will acquire Kofax. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Lexmark will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Kofax for $11.00 per share in cash for a total enterprise value of approximately $1 billion, net of cash acquired.

Read the full press release on Lexmark’s website here.

Our opinion at Prevalent Software is that this merger (acquisition) will bolster Lexmark’s strategy to become a one-stop ECM shop.  At the same time, by joining forces with Lexmark, Kofax will likely see its position as an independent capture vendor erode, and will face pressure to focus more on working with Perceptive’s ImageNow product (acquired by Lexmark in 2010) and Lexmark’s hardware solutions.

We see this as an opportunity to gain market share in the enterprise document capture space, as this acquisition creates a void in the Kofax reseller and ISV channels.