Lexmark International Technology S.A. has made a recommended cash offer to the shareholders of ReadSoft AB (publ). The proposed acquisition of Swedish ReadSoft is an additional step in Lexmark's continued transition from a hardware-centric company to a solutions company providing end-to-end solutions that allow customers to bridge the paper and digital worlds and the unstructured and structured content/process worlds. The total offer value for all shares in ReadSoft amounts to approximately SEK 1.2 billion.

Lexmark International Technology is a wholly-owned subsidiary to Lexmark International Inc. In 2013, Lexmark had sales over $3.6 billion (USD), did business in over 170 countries and employed approximately 12,000 people world-wide.

ReadSoft offers applications for automated business processes such as accounts receivable, sales order processing, and multichannel mailroom automation. ReadSoft's solution for invoice processing automation integrates seamlessly e.g. with ERP systems from SAP and Oracle. Today ReadSoft is an international group with subsidiaries in 17 countries. The ReadSoft B-share is traded on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm.

A team based in our Stockholm office is advising Lexmark, with support from our offices in Frankfurt, Munich, Copenhagen, London, Brussels and Warsaw.

The Bird & Bird team is led by partner Hans Svensson and senior associate Caroline Grotenfelt and includes partners Jörgen Ekström, Gabriel Lidman, Mahmut Baran, Fabian Niemann (Frankfurt), Anne Federle (Brussels), Stefan Münch (Munich), and Maciej Gawronski (Warsaw), and associates Johanna Elvander Juhlin, Anna Gustafsson, Johan Bohm, Magnus Berterud, Nina Strandnäs, Daniel Thorbjörnsson, Ida Smed Sörensen, Tim Boström and Johanna Stampe.