Montreal’s Haivision rebuffs Ontario rival Evertz’s advances again, calling it a “distraction” as one observer believes Evertz can afford to offer more.
Evertz on Friday sent an improved offer to buy Montreal-based streaming solutions provider Haivision by about 5%. This proposal was quickly rejected by Haivision during the weekend.
“It’s about the same offer as the previous one”, comments the founder and big boss of Haivision, Mirko Wicha. “It’s really just a distraction,” he told The Press.
Evertz announced on Friday evening that it had sent Haivision a $4.75 per share purchase proposal that would give Haivision a market value of $137 million.
The Ontario company first offered $4.50 per share ($130 million) in early March. After rejecting this offer, Haivision endowed itself with a toxic dragee.
Also known as a poison pill, a poison dragee is a shareholder rights plan that takes the form of a defensive strategy aimed at deterring an unwanted takeover attempt by creating a significant risk of dilution.
In this case, the toxic dragee would come into effect as soon as a shareholder obtains a 20% or more stake in Haivision and would give all shareholders, except the author of the hostile offer, the right to buy new shares at half their market price.
In its revised proposal presented Friday to Haivision, Evertz specifies that any formal and binding offer will have to be subject to a due diligence process.
This condition is not reasonable given the competitive environment in which the two companies operate, commented analyst Nick Corcoran of the firm Acumen Capital.
“The revised offer also remains well below what Haivision’s main shareholders would accept,” he adds.
Nick Corcoran says, however, that Evertz has the potential to offer more if the leaders of the two companies decide to negotiate.
In rejecting Evertz’s revised offer this weekend, Haivision’s board explained that the proposal is not in the best interests of the company and its stakeholders, and that Haivision must remain focused on execution of its business plan and growth strategy.
This saga began in February after Everz revealed that he had accumulated shares of Haivision on the market to the point of holding a 10% stake in the Montreal company and becoming one of its largest shareholders. Management then indicated that it had purchased the shares for investment purposes.
Haivision went public in December 2020. The initial share price was then set at $6 in Toronto.