Pitney Bowes Inc. shares PBI, -1.10% soared 9.4% in premarket trade Monday, after the provider of software to e-commerce, shipping and financial services companies said it is selling its software solutions business to data company Syncsort for $700 million in cash. Stamford, Conn.-based Pitney Bowes is expecting the deal to close before the end of the year. The deal comes after a review of the company's strategic options.
The company will use most of the proceeds of the deal to pay down near-term debt maturities. The business will be recorded as discontinued operations starting in the third quarter. The company said it now expects full-year adjusted per-share earnings of 65 cents to 75 cents, below the current FactSet consensus of 90 cents, reflecting both the sale of the business and the impact of tariffs, which were not included in the company's original forecasts.