Tech Data, an American multinational home-grown business located in the Tampa Bay area, Florida, recently announced that it has inked an agreement to be acquired by Apollo Global Management, a private equity giant, for a sum of $5.4 billion.

Apparently, Apollo will be paying $130 per share of Tech Data common stock which is a premium of around 25% on its average closing stock price for 30 days.

Rich Hume, Chief Executive Officer at Tech Data commented that the company has built up an excellent team and culture in the past 45 years. The sale confirms that the Tech Data is the premier ITR distribution company in the industry.

Tech Data was founded by Edward Raymund in the year 1974 to sell disk packs, computer tapes and several other supplies for both mainframe and mini-computers directly to the users. It is expected that company will remain headquartered in Pinellas County.

Rick Kriseman, Mayor of St. Petersburg said that Tech Data is essentially important to the community and stands as the prime example for the kind of company that both the county and the region need. He further added that the company has attracted a lot of business attention to the region and he expects it to flourish in the forthcoming years.

Tech Data has been placed at No. 88 on the Fortune 500 list consisting of the largest publicly traded firms. It has over 14,000 employees across the world.

The sale has to be approved by the regulators and the stockholders in the countries where Tech Data runs its business. After the approval, the deal would be expected to be closing in the first half of 2020. The final deal will change the status of Tech Data from a public traded company to a privately held business, while Hume shall remain as the CEO.

Source Credit- https://www.tampabay.com/news/business/2019/11/13/private-equity-giant-to-buy-tech-data-for-54-billion/