Thomson Reuters (TRI) has raised its offer to buy Swedish tax preparation firm Pagero by 25% to $789 million U.S.
Toronto-based Thomson Reuters said it now controls 54% of Pagero and that it is seeking to prevent any rival bids from emerging for the electronic invoicing and tax solutions company.
Another company, U.S. tax technology firm Vertex (VERX), had also bid for Pagero but withdrew its offer on Jan. 14 after Thomson Reuters upped its purchase price.
The latest offer from Thomson Reuters, which also owns the Checkpoint accounting service, is about 39% higher than Vertex’s last bid before it dropped out of the running for Pagero.
Pagero, whose services involve digitizing and automating account processing, said that its board of directors is recommending Thomson Reuters' latest takeover offer.
Thomson Reuters, which owns and operates the Reuters news agency, has a strategy to grow through mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
The company has said that it has a $10 billion U.S. M&A budget through 2025.
In the last year, Thomson Reuters acquired Britain’s Imagen, a digital content asset management company, and California-based Casetext, which helps legal professionals conduct research and prepare documents using artificial intelligence (A.I.).
The stock of Thomson Reuters has risen 19% in the last year to trade at $145.46 U.S. per share.
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