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On 22 September 2020, Big Sofa Technologies plc that it had terminated its formal sale process (FSP) after disruption caused by the pandemic prevented it from finding any acceptable offers.

The video data and analytics provider had the FSP on 16 March 2020 in a bid to ‘capture significant growth opportunity’, recognising the difficulty of raising new equity due to the turbulence caused as a result of COVID-19, which had prevented it from completing its fundraise. Big Sofa  also suspended its shares the same day. The company went on to the cancellation of its listing on AIM on 27 May 2020, stating the pandemic had made it ‘impossible to raise conventional funds on AIM, and this has precipitated a critical short-term working capital requirement’, and announcing that Big Sofa only had working capital until May. Big Sofa stated that the cancellation would allow for the commencement of any transaction, if agreed upon, to proceed without delay, and allow the company to save on costs associated with maintaining its admission. The company cancelled its admission on 29 April 2020.

In light of this, the company noted it was making commercial progress by growing revenue and cutting costs, and that despite remaining loss making, it had been able to raise finance from the private markets to address its immediate working capital needs. However, despite this, the  impact of the pandemic on the M&A markets and the continued highly uncertain economic climate prevented Big Sofa from attracting any acceptable offers in light of its commercial progress. The board therefore terminated the FSP, concluding it was ‘unlikely to produce an attractive outcome in the current environment’.