Shares of Blackbaud Inc. BLKB shot up 14.1% toward a 13-month high in premarket trading, after its largest shareholder Clearlake Capital Group L.P. disclosed a bid to buy all the outstanding Blackbaud shares for $71 each, a 22.8% premium to Friday’s closing price of $57.83. The per-share bid would value the provider of software for the philanthropic community at about $3.78 billion. Clearlake also disclosed that it owned 9.75 million Blackbaud shares, or 18.3% of the shares outstanding. Clearlake plans to hold talks with Blackbaud regarding terms of the proposed buyout. Back in October, Blackbaud had adopted a shareholder rights plan, or “poison pill,” to reduce the likelihood that any entity acquires a more-than 20% stake in the company. Blackbaud’s stock has lost 1.8% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 3.4%.
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