Paul I think they did pay that much. The first shares were at...

Paul I think they did pay that much. The first shares were at $2.5 then the partial takeover at $3.45 then the two raisings where they oversubscribed but got a handy few million underwriting fees to help.
I worked it out at around $1.3 per share or $300m for their stake also.
Time will tell if they overpaid, I personally don't think so. The small shareholder had a massive advantage right?
If you want 50% you have to pay a premium to help the little guy under the excellent takeover rules in place. It's so frustrating that the little guys seem unable to help themselves. Makes it hard to blame Crescent for scooping them up and raising unnecessary capital.
In the annals of the corporate world the way they have behaved is positively gentlemanly. Go check out the Ausenco thread where a vulture firm bought the debt allowed the CEO Zimi Meka to scoop up more shares and forced everyone else to sell out at a low price.
He should be in jail the prick.
Even now you can buy CDD for less than Crescent paid and they cleaned up the balance sheet and are motivated to fix the business.
Plenty of private equity deals go sour and I don't advocating following their money but knowing yourself what it's worth.
I don't know if Crescent were surprised by the extent of the issues. Who knows what they think.
They are looking to sell in a few years at a good price so we see eye to eye as that's what I will be doing too. Keeping an eye on developments in the business of course.
They seem to be selling a lot of it off but does software fit in a consultancy? The thing was the water modelling was something that they consulted in but a software company wants to sell licences to the competition.
So then when I think about it perhaps splitting XP Solutions off is a good deal. Who can say what's next. They seem to change from day to day what is core and what is "portfolio".
Caminosca and PPI must be the big boys on the block. If they are smart (and they may be) they will wait for the U.S tight oil production to recover over the next 6months before ditching PPI.
It was a huge drag on the last results but won't be going forward.