Founder Makes $32-Million Offer to Take Video Company Private

Andrew M. McIntyre, founder and chairman of AME, offered Monday to take the company private, buying the 56% of the Burbank post-production company he does not already own for $11.50 a share in cash, or about $32 million.

AME, founded in 1980, has rapidly become one of the nation’s biggest video post-production concerns. AME mainly transfers film to videotape for studios in Southern California, so that movies and television shows can be mass distributed. In recent months AME has also acquired some post-production firms in New York to increase its East Coast presence.

After McIntyre’s announcement, AME’s stock closed at $9.75 a share, up $1.50, in over-the-counter trading. McIntyre’s offer represents a 39% premium over AME’s closing price of $8.25 a share Friday, but it is also $2 a share below the price at which he took AME public in April, 1987, with the sale of 1.75 million shares.

McIntyre did not return a telephone call requesting comment on the offer.

McIntyre himself sold 500,000 shares of stock in the public offering for $6.3 million. McIntyre was AME’s sole owner until 1984, when he started a stock-ownership plan (ESOP) for AME’s employees. The ESOP now owns about 26% of the company.

In announcing his offer in a letter to AME’s directors, McIntyre said he planned to offer the ESOP a chance to participate in the proposed takeover, but that he did not know whether the plan would do so.

AME also said that McIntyre’s offer was subject to his raising the necessary financing but that his investment adviser, Merrill Lynch, is confident that the money will be available. Merrill Lynch also was the lead underwriter in AME’s initial public offering.

AME said it appointed two non-management directors to evaluate McIntyre’s bid, which is due to expire Dec. 8.

Separately, AME said its fourth-quarter profit tumbled 30% from a year earlier, to $866,454, or 18 cents a share, from $1.24 million, or 24 cents a share. In the period ended Sept. 30, revenue rose to $13.3 million from $10.5 million.

For its full fiscal year, AME’s net income fell 22% to $3.16 million, or 64 cents a share, from $4.03 million, or 87 cents a share, in fiscal 1987. AME’s annual revenue climbed to $47.6 million from $37 million.

AME, as it had in the third quarter, blamed the earnings declines largely on a 154-day writers strike against major movie and TV producers last summer. The strike ended Aug 7.