DocuSign shares spike on report company is exploring a sale

DocuSign shares rose as much as 15% and closed up 12% on Friday after the Wall Street Journal reported the e-signature software company tapped advisors about a possible sale.

Talks are still preliminary, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. A DocuSign representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

After losing almost two-thirds of its value last year, DocuSign’s rebound this year has been less dramatic than many of its tech peers. The stock is up 16% in 2023, while the Nasdaq Composite has gained 41%. The company has a market cap of about $13 billion.

DocuSign went public in 2018 and saw business boom during the pandemic as demand soared for technology that allowed people to work together on documents remotely. But growth has slowed dramatically since the economy reopened, and competition remains from Adobe and Dropbox.

A year ago, DocuSign hired former Google executive Allan Thygesen to replace Dan Springer as CEO. Layoffs followed days later.

The stock plummeted 22% on March 10, after the company said finance chief Cynthia Gaylor would leave and told investors to expect a single-digit quarterly revenue increase, down from growth above 50% during Covid.

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