Tiberius Capital has announced that it is increasing its offer for MathStar Inc (OTC:MATH) common shares from $1.15 to $1.25 per share in cash.
We’ve been following MATH since December last year (see our post archive here) when it was trading at $0.68. We initiated the position because MATH was trading below its net cash value and had two substantial stockholders lobbying management to liquidate. The stock is up 79.4% to close yesterday at $1.22, giving it a market capitalization of $11.2M. We last estimated MATH’s liquidation value to be around $12.0M or $1.31 per share. Following a quick review of the last 10Q filing, we’ve slightly reduced our estimate to around $11.7M or $1.27 per share. That value is predominantly cash and short term investments and doesn’t take into account any further value that the sale of the FPOA technology and intellectual property may yield. The two activist investors, Mr. Zachary McAdoo of The Zanett Group and Mr. Salvatore Muoio of S. Muoio & Co., have been urging MATH’s board to consider liquidation rather than a merger. MATH’s board seems to agree, rejecting several unsolicited merger proposals from PureChoice, Inc, suspending the company’s operations and exploring “strategic alternatives, which could include merger, acquisition, increasing operations in another structure or liquidation.” Tiberius Capital launched its original tender offer for MATH on June 1, 2009 at $1.15 cash per share, bidding for 51% of the outstanding shares. Robert T. Sullivan, one of the principals of Tiberius said in the press release announcing the initial offer:
We are making the tender offer to enhance shareholder value. The potential strategies that we may cause MathStar to pursue include a partial repurchase of Shares, an extraordinary dividend, liquidation, selling or licensing MathStar’s technology assets, a business re-start in which MathStar would hire new personnel to improve and commercially exploit its technology assets, and/or a merger or other business combination. We will use the balance of 2009 to carefully examine whether to re-start MathStar’s business and/or to identify a suitable merger partner.
The latest press release from Tiberius is below:
TIBERIUS CAPITAL INCREASES ITS TENDER OFFER PRICE TO $1.25 PER SHARE FOR ALL MATHSTAR (OTC: MATH.PK) COMMON SHARES;
EXTENDS OFFER UNTIL 11:59 P.M., NEW YORK CITY TIME ON JULY 20, 2009
CHICAGO, Illinois, July 6, 2009—Tiberius Capital II, LLC (“Tiberius”), a value-opportunity fund located in Chicago, announced today that it is increasing the purchase price in its tender offer for all MathStar (OTC: MATH.PK) common shares from $1.15 to $1.25 net per share in cash (without interest and subject to applicable withholding taxes). Tiberius also announced that it is extending the tender offer until 11:59 P.M., New York City time, on July 20, 2009, and that it is reducing the “Minimum Tender Condition” to the tender offer from a majority of outstanding MathStar shares to 3,000,000 of such shares. As of July 2, 2009, approximately 672,000 MathStar common shares have been tendered and not withdrawn. All MathStar shareholders who have tendered will receive the higher $1.25 price.
Tiberius urges all MathStar shareholders to tender all of their shares as soon as possible prior to the Expiration Date on July 20, 2009, at 11:59 p.m., New York City Time.
[Full Disclosure: We do not have a holding in MATH. This is neither a recommendation to buy or sell any securities. All information provided believed to be reliable and presented for information purposes only. Do your own research before investing in any security.]
If you don’t mind me asking, how’d you get $1.27 per share? From Google’s data [ http://www.google.com/finance?fstype=bi&q=OTC:MATH ], I got $1.50 per share in cash. Is their data inaccurate, or did you deduct estimated liquidation costs?
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>did you deduct estimated liquidation costs?
Bingo. It might be too conservative, but it helps us sleep at night.
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