ENERNOC AGREES TO $300M BUYOUT BY ITALIAN FIRM

An energy efficiency software company that has been hailed as a prime example of the Bay State’s flourishing clean tech industry has agreed to sell to an Italian energy company for $300 million, the companies announced yesterday.

In a statement, EnerNOC Inc. CEO and co-founder Tim Healy said the company decided to sell itself to Enel Group, an international electricity and gas operator that operates in dozens of countries, because “we’ve found Enel is a company that wants to do the same things for our customers.”

“They can do it in more places, they’re in more places, they can give resources,” he added.

Enel Group agreed to pay $7.67 per share, more than a 42 percent premium to EnerNOC’s share price at the end of the day Wednesday. The sale caused EnerNOC shares to shoot up to $7.65 per share yesterday, which represented an increase of 41.7 percent.

EnerNOC makes software that helps customers better understand and control their energy use and provides solutions aimed at rewarding companies or reimbursing them for using less energy during peak usage periods.

Although Healy said he expects EnerNOC to remain an independent entity and he doesn’t expect any layoffs, he declined to say whether he would remain at EnerNOC, the company he co-founded more than 16 years ago.

“I love what we do here at EnerNOC, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make EnerNOC successful,” he said.

Healy said being acquired made sense because the energy efficiency industry is reaching a turning point as businesses increasingly understand it makes financial sense to be energy efficient.

“We wanted to think big and go beyond our ability as a public company,” Healy said. “(Energy efficiency) is a central strategic component to how businesses are thinking about their strategy.”

Healy said Enel is one of the companies trying to make a dramatic change in the energy industry.

“They’re imagining an energy company that looks very different from what a utility company usually looks like,” he said.

EnerNOC expects the deal to close during the third quarter of this year.

PHOTO BY MELANIE STETSON FREEMAN / THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR HIGH-ENERGY DEAL: Employees at EnerNOC work in the `mission control' room at their hub in this 2013 photo. EnerNOC announced that it has agreed to be acquired for $300 million by Italian-based Enel Group.