Tech star sunk by Apple sold to Americans

A FORMER British tech star crushed by Apple is about to fall into foreign hands after a major shareholder withdrew its objections to a takeover.

Monitise now looks set to be taken over by Fiserv, which yesterday said its final offer for the AIM-listed firm was £75m.

The Soho-based company had been expected to be a major player in mobile payments but saw its fortunes tumble after Apple revealed it was muscling in on the market in 2014.

A revelation that Google was also launching its own payments system and several profit warnings have since helped to hammer Monitise’s shares by more than 96pc.

Fiserv’s new proposal values Monitise at 3.1p per share, up from 2.9p previously.

It was described as ‘ pretty awful’ by Cavendish Asset Management fund manager Paul Mumford, whose firm is the second-largest shareholder with 4.4pc of stocks.

But with no alternative suit- ors, falling revenues and Fiserv’s refusal to make more concessions, Mumford said his fund would no longer oppose the takeover.

He said: ‘ Monitise has quite a substantial payments system, so it is quite disappointing that management have not been able to get what I think is the company’s full worth.

‘If Monitise could secure a bank contract it would be transformative, but it has said before that banks do not want to deal with a relatively small AIM company. With the backing of Fiserv it might be possi- ble for it to do those deals. It’s just a shame that another British tech company will now fall into overseas ownership.’

Fiserv’s offer yesterday was up from its initial offering of £70m, with the company adding: ‘The financial terms of the increases offer are final and will not be increased.’

It pointed to a bleak trading update by Monitise last month that showed falling revenues, uncertainty around tax losses, a depleting cash pile and an apparent lack of other suitors.

Monitise said the board was supportive of the bid.