Bottomline $2.6 Billion Thoma Bravo Deal Draws Pension Fund Suit

A pension fund sued Bottomline Technologies Inc. in Delaware over claims that its leaders may have tilted the scales in favor of a $2.6 billion sale to Thoma Bravo LP, rather than pursuing strategic alternatives, because the private equity firm has a reputation for retaining and rewarding management.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, seeks internal files from Bottomline to investigate a “credible suspicion” that its board and executives—facing pressure from activist investors—spurned at least one serious suitor for reasons “other than maximization of value for Bottomline’s outside stockholders.”

The fintech company’s “directors, officers, and bankers” appear to have “inappropriately favored Thoma ...