Responds to Latest Letter from Light Street by
Reiterating Alternative Proposal is Not Credible and Lacks an
Operational Plan, Leadership and Financing
Special Meeting of Zendesk Stockholders Remains
Scheduled for September 19
Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) (“Zendesk”) today issued the following
statement reiterating its support for the proposed acquisition of
Zendesk by a consortium led by Hellman & Friedman and Permira
(the "Consortium”) and expressing its views in response to a letter
from Light Street Capital Management (“Light Street”) to the
Zendesk Board of Directors related to the Consortium
transaction:
“The Zendesk Board continues to believe that the Consortium
transaction provides superior value and certainty for all
stockholders relative to the standalone alternative. The
Consortium’s acquisition is an agreed all-cash transaction for all
Zendesk shares, delivering $77.50 per share to all Zendesk
stockholders, a 34% premium to the unaffected stock price. The
Consortium has arranged for debt and equity financing commitments
to finance the transaction and the transaction is not subject to
any financing conditions.
“In contrast, Light Street’s eleventh-hour alternative proposal
is not credible and its attempt to delay the stockholder vote is
not in the best interests of our stockholders. The Zendesk Board
conducted a thorough evaluation of the financial and strategic
merits of Light Street’s unsolicited, non-binding recapitalization
proposal and determined it would not provide superior value to all
stockholders.
“The facts remain unchanged. Light Street’s recapitalization
proposal, aside from Light Street’s ‘confidence’, does not include
any specificity on how Light Street would approach the core value
driver of their proposed recapitalization, which is the ability to
drive an operational turnaround as a highly-leveraged public
company, contains problematic governance terms and is not yet
supported by any committed financing. Notably, leading independent
proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services (“ISS”)
observed that Light Street has ‘admitted a lack of demonstrable
experience with a campaign involving a recapitalization,
identifying director and CEO candidates, and executing an
organizational turnaround1.’ Without a credible operational plan,
Light Street’s proposal is simply financial engineering,
meaningfully increasing the risk of the standalone alternative by
adding significant financial leverage and transferring control to
an investor who is not paying for control and has no track record
of exercising that control for the benefit of public
stockholders.
“In view of the above, ISS expressed its support for the
Consortium acquisition, highlighting: ‘In light of the certainty of
the value inherent in the transaction and the significant downside
risk of non-approval and the standalone option, along with the
insufficient detail and the execution risk inherent in Light
Street's alternative proposal, support FOR the proposed transaction is
warranted.’
“Light Street’s claims of the Zendesk Board not engaging with
them are unfounded and misleading. In its capacity as a
stockholder, Light Street could have approached Zendesk to share
its views at any time in the six months since an acquisition
proposal was first disclosed, or in the two months since the
Consortium transaction was announced. Instead, it waited until
shortly before the stockholder meeting and chose a path that
prevented the Zendesk Board from being able to directly engage. In
sending its proposal to Zendesk, Light Street knew (or should have
known) that its proposal structure triggered the provisions of the
existing Consortium merger agreement, which are customary in public
company merger agreements and are fully disclosed. To engage, the
Board first must determine that the proposal is, or is likely to
lead to, a Superior Proposal. For reasons articulated above and in
Zendesk’s prior statement and presentations, the Light Street
proposal is not a Superior Proposal nor is it likely to lead to
one.”
The Zendesk Board of Directors unanimously recommends that
stockholders vote “FOR” the Consortium
transaction.
Stockholders’ votes are very important, regardless of the number
of shares owned. To complete the Consortium transaction, the merger
agreement must be adopted by the affirmative vote of the holders of
at least a majority of the outstanding shares of Zendesk common
stock entitled to vote at the Special Meeting.
If stockholders have any questions or need assistance voting
their shares, please contact Zendesk’s proxy solicitor:
MACKENZIE PARTNERS, INC. 1407 Broadway,
27th Floor New York, NY 10018 Toll-Free: +1 (800) 322-2885 Email:
proxy@mackenziepartners.com
Advisors
Qatalyst Partners and Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC are serving as
financial advisors to Zendesk. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
is serving as Zendesk’s legal advisor.
About Zendesk
Zendesk started the customer experience revolution in 2007 by
enabling any business around the world to take their customer
service online. Today, Zendesk is the champion of great service
everywhere for everyone, and powers billions of conversations,
connecting more than 100,000 brands with hundreds of millions of
customers over telephony, chat, email, messaging, social channels,
communities, review sites and help centers. Zendesk products are
built with love to be loved. The company was conceived in
Copenhagen, Denmark, built and grown in California, taken public in
New York City, and today employs more than 6,000 people across the
world. Learn more at www.zendesk.com.
Additional Information and Where to Find It
This communication relates to the proposed transaction involving
Zendesk, Inc. (“Zendesk”). In connection with the proposed
transaction, Zendesk has filed with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) a definitive proxy statement on
Schedule 14A (the “Proxy Statement”). The Proxy Statement was first
mailed to Zendesk’s stockholders on or about August 8, 2022. This
communication is not a substitute for the Proxy Statement or for
any other document that Zendesk may file with the SEC and send to
its stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction. The
proposed transaction will be submitted to Zendesk’s stockholders
for their consideration. Before making any voting decision,
Zendesk’s stockholders are urged to read all relevant documents
filed or to be filed with the SEC, including the Proxy Statement,
as well as any amendments or supplements to those documents, when
they become available because they will contain important
information about the proposed transaction.
Zendesk’s stockholders will be able to obtain a free copy of the
Proxy Statement, as well as other filings containing information
about Zendesk, without charge, at the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov).
Copies of the Proxy Statement and the filings with the SEC that
will be incorporated by reference therein can also be obtained,
without charge, by directing a request to Zendesk, Inc., 989 Market
Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, Attention: Investor Relations,
email: ir@zendesk.com, or from Zendesk’s website
www.zendesk.com.
Participants in the Solicitation
Zendesk and certain of its directors, executive officers and
employees may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of
proxies in respect of the proposed transaction. Information
regarding Zendesk’s directors and executive officers is available
in Zendesk’s proxy statement on Schedule 14A for the 2022 annual
meeting of stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on July 11,
2022. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy
solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect
interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be contained in
the Proxy Statement and other relevant materials to be filed with
the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction when they
become available. Free copies of the Proxy Statement and such other
materials may be obtained as described in the preceding
paragraph.
Forward-Looking Statements
This communication includes information that could constitute
forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor
provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These statements include those set forth above relating to the
proposed transaction as well as those that may be identified by
words such as “will,” “intend,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “should,”
“could” and similar expressions. These statements are subject to
risks and uncertainties, and actual results and events could differ
materially from what presently is expected, including regarding the
proposed transaction. Factors leading thereto may include, without
limitation, the risks related to the Ukraine conflict or the
COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and financial markets; the
uncertainties relating to the impact of the Ukraine conflict or the
COVID-19 pandemic on Zendesk’s business; economic or other
conditions in the markets Zendesk is engaged in; impacts of actions
and behaviors of customers, suppliers and competitors;
technological developments, as well as legal and regulatory rules
and processes affecting Zendesk’s business; the timing, receipt and
terms and conditions of any required governmental and regulatory
approvals of the proposed transaction that could reduce anticipated
benefits or cause the parties to abandon the proposed transaction;
the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that
could give rise to the termination of the merger agreement entered
into pursuant to the proposed transaction; the possibility that
Zendesk stockholders may not approve the proposed transaction; the
risk that the parties to the merger agreement may not be able to
satisfy the conditions to the proposed transaction in a timely
manner or at all; risks related to disruption of management time
from ongoing business operations due to the proposed transaction;
the risk that any announcements relating to the proposed
transaction could have adverse effects on the market price of
Zendesk’s common stock; the risk of any unexpected costs or
expenses resulting from the proposed transaction; the risk of any
litigation relating to the proposed transaction; the risk that the
proposed transaction and its announcement could have an adverse
effect on the ability of Zendesk to retain customers and retain and
hire key personnel and maintain relationships with customers,
suppliers, employees, stockholders and other business relationships
and on its operating results and business generally; the risk the
pending proposed transaction could distract management of Zendesk;
and other specific risk factors that are outlined in Zendesk’s
disclosure filings and materials, which you can find on
www.zendesk.com, such as its 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K reports that have
been filed with the SEC. Please consult these documents for a more
complete understanding of these risks and uncertainties. This list
of factors is not intended to be exhaustive. Such forward-looking
statements only speak as of the date of these materials, and
Zendesk assumes no obligation to update any written or oral
forward-looking statement made by Zendesk or on its behalf as a
result of new information, future events or other factors, except
as required by law.
1 Permission to use quotations neither sought nor obtained from
ISS.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220912005969/en/
Investors: Jason Tsai, +1 415-997-8882 ir@zendesk.com
Media: Courtney Blake, +1 816-520-5503
press@zendesk.com
John Christiansen +1 415-618-8750 Danielle Berg +1 212-687-8080
FGS Global Zendesk-SVC@sardverb.com
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