Thoma Bravo courts Nearmap with $1bn bid

Australian aerial imaging company Nearmap may be sold to US private equity firm Thoma Bravo, revealing a potential takeover worth $1.06 billion.

In an ASX filing [pdf], Nearmap said it received Thoma Bravo’s offer on July 6, and has since decided the offer is “credible and sufficient to grant non-exclusive due diligence access to Thoma Bravo”.

Now at an “advanced stage”, the process encompasses “all financial and other valuation-critical due diligence”.

Thoma Bravo has seven days’ exclusivity, which can be extended at both parties’ agreement.

Nearmap also said it had received “a number of other non-binding expressions of interest” in its business, none of which received board endorsement.

Nearmap is currently fending off a patent claim by rival EagleView first filed in March, and in May said [pdf] it had filed for four of EagleView’s patents to be invalidated.