Why TaskUs Stock Soared on Friday

Digital services provider TaskUs (NASDAQ: TASK) had a busy day on Friday. The company, which provides customer support and business process operations to other businesses, reported first-quarter earnings in the early morning -- and that wasn't the biggest news of the day. TaskUs is also going private in a deal financed by its co-founders and banking powerhouse Blackstone (NYSE: BX).

The stock had gained 18.2% overnight as of 12:45 p.m. ET, trending higher across the morning session.

Image source: Getty Images.

Analyst-stumping earnings were just a sideshow this time

Let's start with the simple earnings report.

The average Wall Street analyst was looking for earnings near $0.33 per share. Revenues were expected to rise 15% year over year, landing in the neighborhood of $257.8 million.

The company crushed the analyst community's targets on the revenue line and edged out the earnings target by a smaller margin. Sales jumped 22% higher to $277.8 million, while adjusted earnings rose 27% to $0.38 per share. Management highlighted artificial intelligence (AI) services as the key growth driver behind these fantastic results.

But TaskUs didn't provide much analysis of the quarter, canceling the scheduled earnings call. That makes sense with a pending takeover on the table.

Co-founders Bryce Maddock (current TaskUs CEO) and Jaspar Weir (president) teamed up with Blackstone to propose an all-cash buyout for $16.50 per share. That's 15% above Thursday's closing price, and roughly in line with Friday's boosted share prices.

TaskUs and Blackstone will take the company offline

The buyout was unanimously approved by the TaskUs board of directors. This deal is now awaiting the usual range of closing conditions, such as regulatory approval and a positive shareholder vote. Weir and Maddock already own about 11% of the company, lowering the bar for shareholder approval. The buyers expect to close the buyout in the second half of 2025.

"This strategic transaction will deliver immediate value to stockholders, while enabling TaskUs to make long-term investments to better support both our own business and our clients as we scale and adapt in the AI age," Maddock said in a prepared statement.

This isn't exactly a victory march, though. TaskUs shares changed hands at more than $80 per share in the fall of 2021. The buyout price represents an 80% discount from those lofty heights, when online delivery of customer service looked like a slam-dunk win for the long haul. In reality, the demand for such services diminished. TaskUs' revenue growth ground to a halt in 2022 and only recently peaked back over the old sales records again.

Blackstone is taking a calculated risk here. I think it's too late to take advantage of the company's rekindled business growth, because I don't see a bidding war erupting at this point.

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Anders Bylund has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Blackstone. The Motley Fool recommends TaskUs. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.