$100 Million Spreadsheet Error

Tibco Software recently agreed to be acquired for $4.2 billion by Vista Equity Partners. Usually, an announcement such as this ends the negotiations regarding price. However, in this case, an error in a spreadsheet overvalued Tibco by $100 million. As a result, Vista will only have to pay $4.1 billion for Tibco. The reduction in value will lower the payment to Tibco shareholders by $.61 per share.