(June 22) Shares of Splunk Inc. are up 8% in premarket trading Tuesday after the software company announced that Silver Lake plans to invest $1 billion in the company through convertible senior notes.
Splunk anticipates that it will use the proceeds from the Silver Lake investment to spend on growth initiatives and manage its capital structure, as the company has a newly authorized share-buyback program that will allow it to repurchase up to $1 billion of its stock over time. Silver Lake Chairman Kenneth Hao will join Splunk's board in conjunction with the investment.
The senior notes purchased by Silver Lake will have an initial conversion price of $160 a share and will mature in July 2026, unless they are repurchased, redeemed, or converted earlier than that. The notes will bear interest at 0.75% annually. Splunk shares have declined 35% over the past year as the S&P 500 SPX, +1.40% has risen 36% and as the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF IGV, +0.38% has increased 14%.
(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Bernard Orr)