Ampex Corporation
(NDAQ:AMPX) rejected a partial buyout offer from its largest
shareholder late last week. The move comes after the company expressed
interest in utilizing a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to
better utilize its intellectual property. Shareholder are obviously
looking for this proposal to materialize as it would mean a decent
buyout premium.
ValueVest, who owns a 13 percent stake in the
company, proposed the creation of a new company that would purchase all
existing intellectual property rights, including the franchise,
non-competing product manufacturing, and private-label rights to use
the name Athena and all of the company's patents, copyrights, trade
secrets and other intangible assets.
The new company would
also enter into an agreement that would effectively transfer all
management and economic rights of all existing licenses of the
intellectual property to which no payments are currently being made.
ValueVest agreed to provide $14 million in cash to fund the new
company, with $7 million being used to acquire intellectual property.
In return, the hedge fund required the right to 50 percent of the new
company's net income.
While ValueVest's original proposal was
rejected, they did leave the door open for suggestions to the company.
Meanwhile, the company said it has to hear back about MCAM's valuation
of its intellectual property in order to get an idea of just how much
everything is worth. In the end, we could still see a deal materialize
but it may take a little longer than expected. However, AMPX is still a
stock
worth watching!
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