ASX Tech Stocks: Technology One hit by cyber attack, Pushpay's last day of share trading before $1.6bn takeover

Technology One enters a trading halt after detecting a hack to its internal Microsoft 365 back-office system
Last day of trade for church donor app Pushpay following successful $1.6 billion takeover by Pegasus Bidco
Challenging operating and macroeconomic conditions persist for Appen, Dicker Data sees uptick in revenue

TECHNOLOGY ONE (ASX:TNE)

The enterprise business software company has entered a trading halt after a cyber attack. TNE said in an announcement that an unauthorised third-party acted illegally to access its internal Microsoft 365 back-office system.

The company said its customer-facing SaaS platform is not connected to the Microsoft 365 system and therefore has not been impacted.

“The company has acted with urgency to investigate the issue, including initiation of its cyber response strategy, appointing third party experts, and isolating affected systems,” TNE said.

“The company has reported this incident to relevant authorities and continues to not only comply but go beyond its regulatory obligations.”

TNE said once the investigation is further progressed, it will be in a position to contact those who may be affected to work with them on the ongoing safety of their data.

“We apologise to impacted individuals for any concern this incident may cause. Further updates will be provided via the ASX and on our website as they become available,” TNE said.

PUSHPAY (ASX:PPH)

Today marks the last day of trading in shares of dual-listed church donor app PPH on the ASX and NZX with the company announcing that it has received final orders from the New Zealand High Court approving a revised takeover bid with Sixth Street and BGH Capital consortium Pegasus Bidco Limited.

Pushpay has requested that NZX and ASX suspend trading in its shares from today and will delist from the close of trade on May 19, when the acquisition formally finalises.

Consideration is NZ$1.42/PPH share for all shareholders, other than shareholders associated with the bidder and for the specified shares, valuing the company at ~$1.6 billion.

Pegasus Bidco’s earlier bid of 8 cents/share was rejected in March.

Appen (ASX:APX)

The artificial intelligence (AI) training data services said there has been little reprieve from challenging external operating and macroeconomic conditions noted in its FY22 result and they have persisted into FY23.

For the four months ending April 30, the company reported revenue of $95.7m, down 21.4% on the same period last year. Gross profit was down 24.7% to $35.8m and APX reported an underlying EBITDA loss of $12.4m.

APX also announced a series of measures to achieve further annualised cost savings to those announced in February.

The company said the measures will be delivered over the course of FY23 and are expected to deliver further annualised cost savings of about $36m.

APX is forecasting to finish FY23 with an annualised run-rate cash operating cost base of about $113m. The company said it continues to face headwinds from the broader tech sector slowdown and consequently expects revenue to decline materially in FY23 compared to FY22.

Dicker Data (ASX:DDR)

Continuing with quarterly results and tech hardware, software, cloud, access control and surveillance distributor has seen a nice little uptick to its revenue in Q1 FY23 at $772.3m up 14.7%, or $98.7m.

The revenue split between Australia and New Zealand was $623.9m and $148.4m respectively. DDR said the increase in revenue is partly attributed to full quarter contribution from its Hills acquisition not in the comparative period, with the balance attributable to organic growth from existing and new vendors and increases in other income, representing year on year organic growth of 9.7%.

The revenue contribution from the DAS business for the quarter was $33.4m and whilst DDR said the first quarter was focused on cost rationalisation with that business unit yet to deliver a profit, it forecasts it to be profitable from Q2 FY23.

Gross margins for the quarter finalised at 9.2%, in line with expectations and up from 8.6% in the comparative quarter last year.

Excluding one-off costs, operating profit before tax finalised at $25.9m an increase of $2.1m or 8.8%.

Net profit before tax for the first quarter was $25.4m an increase of 6.7%, which included a one-off redundancy costs of $513.6k as the company continues to review costs of operations.

“We delivered a pleasing result in the first quarter of 2023, buoyed by a strong monthly revenue result in March,” chairman and CEO, David Dicker, said.

“We expect to see the upside of operational refinements undertaken during the first quarter within the next three to six months, putting us in a strong position to deliver on shareholder expectations in FY23.”

Directors have been showing their support for the company in 2023 with executive director and chief operating officer Vladimir Mitnovetski ponying up for 30,000 shares for $241,950 on February 28.