Par Technology, which provides point-of-sale software and payments processing, is the latest payments player to come under pressure from a shareholder urging a sale of the company.
The New Hartford, New York-based Par Tech should consider a sale of the company, given the “indiscriminate bludgeoning” that software stock prices have experienced, investment firm Voss Capital said in an open letter to the company last week attached to a press release.
Voss Capital, one of Par’s largest shareholders with a 13.2% stake, told the company’s board on Wednesday that it should immediately “explore a full range of strategic alternatives,” pointing to recent acquisitions of companies in the restaurant technology arena.
The Houston-based investment firm explained that it believes Par’s business catering to retail and restaurant companies at the intersection of software and data is an undervalued asset, vis-a-vis the public stock market. Further, the drop in Par Tech’s stock price has robbed the company of an ability to use its shares as currency to buy other companies, the letter said. The stock has dropped about 70% over the past year.
Voss pointed generally to other lucrative transactions that have been done in the software field recently. While the investment firm didn’t cite any specific deals, there have been several over the past few years, including payment firm Shift4 Payments’ $250 million acquisition of Revel in 2024 and private equity firm Thoma Bravo’s $2 billion purchase of digital order company Olo in September.
“Recent private equity and strategic acquisitions of peer companies in the restaurant technology space have occurred at valuations that reflect the true strategic worth of these platforms, at multiples that far exceed where PAR currently trades,” the Voss letter said. “We believe a robust appetite remains for high-quality, data-rich software platforms like PAR that sell to large enterprises.”
Par Technology got its start as a defense contractor in the 1960s offering analytics services, but today the company has transformed into a software service provider for major restaurant chains. The company’s website shows the Arby’s and Tropical Smoothie Cafe brands as two clients.
CEO Savneet Singh has transitioned the company away from selling point-of-sale hardware to offering software for restaurants’ customer sales and payments. Acquisitions have fueled the company’s strategy shift, including the $132 million acquisition of data analytics company Delaget last year.
Voss, led by Travis Cocke, began investing in Par in late 2023, according to a filing the investment firm made with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday regarding its letter.
In the letter, Voss expressed an interest in discussing the issue with Par. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
