ASX-listed IoT company, Buddy Platform (ASX: BUD) has abandoned its plan to buy US-based Noveda Technologies, a provider of software for the real-time monitoring of energy and water deliver systems.
Buddy was hoping the deal would enable it gain a slice of the multimillion dollar market for management of buildings in New York. Buddy announced last July that the combination of Novada’s technology with its IoT platform had been qualified by The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) for NYSERDA’s $US36m initiative to increase the energy efficiency of New York’s commercial buildings through real time energy management (RTEM).
Buddy has now told the ASX that it will no longer pursue the proposed acquisition. Buddy CEO, David McLauchlan, said: “After eight months and three negotiations and re-negotiations of the terms of the proposed transaction with Noveda, we were advised this week that they sought not just another change in deal terms, but a completely new deal structure. We felt strongly that this was unacceptable and would only perpetuate any market uncertainty surrounding the company, so we elected to walk away.”
Buddy said the decision would not change its strategic focus and that it remained “committed to bringing a complete, alternatively sourced solution to market that will meet the needs of customers in this space.”
Shortly after the announcement the company held a webinar “to discuss any impact on the Buddy core business by this termination, as well as explain the company’s strategic plans for the New Year in light of this development.”
In the statement it said: “Terminating this transaction is not expected to negatively or materially impact Buddy’s strategic focus nor business plan although it will have the effect of reducing Buddy’s total pipeline value (which will be discussed on the webinar, and in subsequent announcements from the CEO).”
It expects this impact to be offset by the up to $US27 million that would have been payable in cash and shares had the deal gone through.
Buddy claims to have developed one of the world’s first data aggregation and management platforms for the IoT and connected devices that “provides the critical infrastructure by which businesses and organisations can, in real-time, access and analyse the data generated by connected devices, and unlock the economic opportunities delivered by this data.”
It claims users in a wide variety of industries, including airlines, agriculture, automotive, consumer electronics, robotics, software development, telecommunications, and transportation.
The company was founded and is headquartered in Seattle but maintains a presence in Adelaide, birthplace of cofounder and CEO McLauchlan. You can read our interview with him here.
