Switzerland's SoftwareOne nears bid for Norway's Crayon, Bloomberg News reports

(Reuters) - Swiss technology firm SoftwareOne Holding, which is currently in talks to sell itself, is nearing a deal to acquire Norwegian rival Crayon Group Holding, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

The Swiss company is in the final stages of presenting a bid for Crayon and intends to take the company private, the report said, citing sources, adding that a deal could be announced as early as this month.

SoftwareOne plans to finance the acquisition primarily or entirely with stock, according to the report.

Its shares were down nearly 12% at 6.39 Swiss francs ($7.18) after the Bloomberg report, resulting in a company a valuation of about 1 billion Swiss francs ($1.12 billion).

Meanwhile, Crayon Group rose by 8.5% at 137.7 crowns, giving it a market capitalization of about 12.16 billion crowns ($1.09 billion).

SoftwareOne declined to comment, while Crayon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Bloomberg News first reported in September that SoftwareOne was exploring a potential merger with Crayon Group.

SoftwareOne, which helps customers buy and manage software from other providers, is also in talks to go private and said last month it had set a deadline to conclude the discussions.

The Swiss company has been in talks with potential buyers, including private equity company Apax Partners, to take itself private.

($1 = 11.1356 Norwegian crowns)

($1 = 0.8899 Swiss francs)

(Reporting by Kritika Singh in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Surbhi Misra in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)