Chairman Sam Wyly, brother Charles who is vice-chairman, and president Sterling Williams are proposing to take Sterling Software Inc private with a cash offer for the company they run that would be in the $9 to $10 range. That would value the Dallas, Texas company, which consists primarily of the old Informatics General Corp, at between $54m and $60m – too low say analysts, although the shares were languishing at $6.625 ahead of the announcement. The three together directly control about 1m of the company’s 6m or so shares, but also hold 200,000 junior preference shares that carry 10 votes each, implying effective control of some 35% of the votes. Sterling did $6.2m net on $190m in the year to September.
