US firm swoops on Aussie fast food software provider TASK Group in $310m deal, share soar 95pc

The sale of TASK Group, which began as a family business in a garage in Sydney 20 years ago, is set to reap a $123.4m payday for its founders.

TASK CEO Daniel Houden said PAR’s takeover proposal gives the company a better chance of achieving its global ambitions.

After TASK Group agreed to a $310m takeover, chief executive Daniel Houden booked a dinner, confident that history would not be repeating.

Mr Houden spoke to The Australian from Las Vegas on Monday, a few hours before he was set to enjoy a meal at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant, overlooking the strip from the Paris casino.

The takeover from PAR Technologies – which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange with a market cap of $US1.22bn ($1.8bn) – represented a stunning turnaround from when Mr Houden last had dinner at Vegas’s tribute to the French capital, four years ago.

Then, he was also toasting the imminent sale of the retail tech company, which his parents founded in their Sydney garage in 2000 and sells software to fast food restaurants, including McDonalds.

But as he was dining with his ­father, they heard that Covid-19 had hit a casino about two blocks away, prompting them to make a hasty exit from the US. The sale to the undisclosed American buyer eventually fell through.

Asked why he had chosen to dine at the same restaurant again, Mr Houden said he had to “purge that history”.

“I waited until it was signed before I entertained looking at that restaurant again,” he said.

PAR has offered TASK investors 81c a share - more than double the company’s closing price of 40c on ­Friday.

News of the deal sent TASK’s ASX-listed shares soaring 90 per cent to 76c.

The Houden family is set to reap $123.5m from its 36 per cent holding, half of which it plans to cash out, with PAR scrip comprising the remainder.

Mr Houden’s parents, Jennifer and Kym, founded the company in their home on Sydney’s northern beaches 24 years ago, recruiting their son while he was still at high school.

Daniel Houden succeeded his father as CEO in 2013, and together they grew TASK from being a small business selling third-party software and hardware to restaurant groups to a full transaction management platform for stadiums, casinos, food service companies and multi­national restaurant chains, turning over more than $10m a year.

Customers include McDonald’s and Baker’s Delight.

But they hit a ceiling. “While everyone, our customers and prospects, all loved our technology, we always get to the end of these conversations with large companies and our size and scale continued to be a challenge,” Mr Houden said.

“We weren’t US-based. We didn’t have the perceived size and scale, which we obviously have in our part of the world because it got that covered, but when you get into this multinational opportunities, that became an issue.”

After the earlier US sale fell through, TASK in 2021 merged with New Zealand marketing software company Plexure in a $120m deal, paving its way for a listing on the ASX.

Takeover talks with PAR began a few months ago.

“From my perspective, we sat back and thought, well, what’s the next logical path for the company?” Mr Houden said.

“PAR has heaps of US logos and primarily a US revenue base, and TASK has the ability to enter and help dovetail off the back of those customers into the international business.”

PAR has also offered a 50 per cent scrip alternative, which implies an equity value of $343m for TASK. The Houden family has a 36 per cent stake in the business, while staff hold about 4 per cent. Mr Houden said the family planned to accept the 50-50 cash-and-scrip offer.

TASK shareholders will vote on the deal in June.