Banta Corporation (NYSE:BN) announced yesterday that they had received a letter from Cenveo dated September 20th, in which Cenveo proposed a business combination transaction involving the company. Banta said that it "is in the process of reviewing the proposal and will respond to Cenveo as appropriate in due course". What did this letter say? Well, Cenveo had a few kind words for Banta's Board regarding the transaction:

"As you might expect, following our prior proposals to acquire Banta, we were amused to read in your press release on September 14th that Banta has adopted "strategic initiatives" to "create value for shareholders." At Cenveo, we are always working to create value for shareholders and do not wait until we have received proposals from third parties to do so

We were also disappointed to hear on your carnival-like conference call that you continue to refer to Cenveo's $47.00 per share fully-financed, all-cash proposal for Banta's shares as "illusory". To reiterate what I stated in my letter of September 5th, we have obtained committed financing to complete this acquisition from Lehman Brothers and Wachovia ... I personally believe that you and the Banta board have breached your fiduciary duties to shareholders by taking actions to entrench yourself by not responding to my September 5, 2006 letter and the $47.00 per share proposal to purchase Banta.

Further, to say, as you did on your call, that we were unable to reach an agreement on the terms of a "standard" confidentiality agreement is a joke. We have offered to meet with you and to provide you with information about our commitment from Lehman Brothers and Wachovia WITHOUT OBTAINING ANY CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION FROM YOU. Why do you need a confidentiality agreement when we are not asking for any confidential information at this time?

The fact that you and your board continue to hide behind your poison pill is in my view 110% un-American. A level playing field is required in order to permit Banta shareholders to decide who manages their company, not a poison pill. As you stated on your most recent conference call, your poison pill is in place to "make sure that your shareholders have the benefit of long-term look at the future." Shareholders now have had plenty of time to review your plan. Therefore, the pill is no longer necessary and we believe it is the board's fiduciary obligation to remove the poison pill and let the shareholders decide the future of Banta."

But is $47 a good deal for shareholders? Well, the stock was trading at around $50 before the company durastically lowered is FY 2006 guidance in July before raising them suddenly in September. However it is difficult to argue that the company is undervalued right now. Although it has a PE of around 17x, it has a PEG of almost 2.87, which is highly overvalued. The company does have a strong cash position and low debt; however, the company is still trading well above its enterprise value. Either way you look at it, $47 is a good price for this stock unless management is capable of executing some other plan to unlock shareholder value in the near term, which doesn't appear to be the case.

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DivX, Inc. (NDAQ:DIVX) is up 13% in mid-day trading today on its debut on the NASDAQ. Those familiar with technology know DivX very well as one of the most popular codecs on the market for compressing video. But the company also licenses its technologies to consumer hardware device manufacturers and certifies their products to ensure the interoperable support of DivX-encoded content.

Let's take a look at whether or not the company is a good buy... Financially, Divx has done extremely well. The companies revenues tripled between 2003 and 2004, and more than doubled between 2004 and 2005. Notably, the company also achieved profitability in 2005 with a net income of $2,295,000 or $0.05 per share (diluted). As of December 31, 2005, the company also had a strong cash position of over $25 million with only $1.2 million in debt and a deficit of $19.4 million. This is a rather healthy balance sheet for a technology company that is just IPO'ing. But are the revenues sustainable? First, let's look at where they are coming from; according to their S-1 filing:

"We derive most of our revenue from the licensing of our technologies to consumer hardware device manufacturers, software vendors and consumers. We derived 81%, 75% and 55% of our total revenues from licensing our technology in 2005, 2004 and 2003, respectively ... In the year ended December 31, 2005, Philips accounted for approximately 13% of our total revenues, and our top 10 licensees by revenue accounted for approximately 41% of our total revenues."

The company also relies on an agreement with Google:

"Revenues under the Google agreement represented approximately 15% of our total revenues in 2005. We currently include Google software in both the basic and enhanced versions of our software that we make available to consumers at no cost from our website. In exchange for offering the included Google software to our consumers, and the subsequent activation of the software by those consumers, Google pays us royalties based on specific performance targets."

At first glance, this seems like bad news. With an increasing amount of their total revenues coming from one market (licensing) and only a few key customers, there is a risk that these deals could go bad, which would significantly impact the company's bottom line. However, as long as the DivX brand name remains strong and their technology keeps evolving, it should not be difficult for the company to retain these contracts. Many public companies have survived with non-diversified revenue streams, including Google! However, it is important for investors to watch the market for competitors and keep an eye on the revenue numbers in the future.

Overall, DivX appears to be a relatively stable company now with its main risk being in non-diversified revenue streams. The shares are trading at a premium now after the IPO, but the company could make a great buy in the near future after the shares settle down. It is a great stock to keep an eye on!

Tribune Company (NYSE:TRB) shares are up over 5% today talk of a possible LBO as the Board contemplates the company's future direction. The company has drawn a lot of criticism by shareholders close to the company after slowly trending from $50 in 2004 to just $30 per share now. Specifically, Tribune has been taking a lot of heat from its second largest shareholder - Chandler Family Trusts - especially after the company failed in its bid to buyback of 25% of its outstanding shares a couple months ago. After this, Chandler Family Trusts suggested that the company spin-off its TV division or putting the entire company up for sale.

It appears that the Board is now acting on this advice... The WSJ is reporting that the company is considering either a leveraged buyout (LBO) in an effort to take the company private or spinning off its TV group. Either situation would generate value for shareholders, as LBOs come at a premium to the market price while spinoffs generally outperform the market. While nothing is certain now, this is an interesting situation that is definitely worth watching.

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