Micro Focus shares surge as it agrees £5 billion takeover from Canada’s OpenText

A summer flurry of merger activity in the City is underway

(Picture: Micro Focus)

Another big-name UK technology company is being snapped up by a foreign buyer, as the weak pound offers a discount to overseas suitors for British firms.

Micro Focus, the Newbury-based industrial software provider, has agreed a £5.1 billion offer from OpenText of Canada. The price -- 532p per share -- is almost double the level at which the stock was trading before the bid was made.