Kudelski Takes Over OpenTV
Swiss Firm Owns 91% of Voting Rights in OpenTV
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 11/13/2009 6:58:45 AM
The Kudelski Group announced that it has successfully completed its tender offer to acquire 60% of the shares of OpenTV it didn't already own, giving it 91% of the voting rights in the developer of interactive TV software and advertising solutions.
Last month, Switzerland-based Kudelski offered $1.55 per share in cash for the shares of OpenTV it did not own. That offer, worth a total of $215 million, expired Nov. 12 at 11 p.m. Eastern. Kudelski and its subsidiaries previously held 32.3% of OpenTV's total outstanding shares and controlled 77.2% of the voting power.
Kudelski, whose holdings include conditional-access vendor Nagravision, had launched a takeover bid in February for $1.35 per share, which OpenTV's board rejected as "inadequate."
Also Friday, Kudelski said it is providing a subsequent offering period to acquire all of the remaining outstanding Class A shares of OpenTV, which will expire 5 p.m. Eastern on Nov. 20, for the same purchase price of $1.55 per share. Kudelski said OpenTV shareholders who don't sell their shares "risk holding an illiquid stock" and that it will seek to delist OpenTV from the NASDAQ. The company has set up a Web site, www.opentvvalue.com, with more details.
OpenTV's middleware has been deployed in more than 127 million digital set-top-boxes and TVs worldwide. Customers of the San Francisco-based company include Time Warner Cable, Comcast Spotlight, Dish Network, Charter Communications, NBC Universal and Suddenlink Communications.
In October 2006, John Malone's Liberty Group sold control of OpenTV to Kudelski for about $132 million.
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