AME Stock Plan Accepts New Offer for Shares

AME said its employee stock ownership plan reached a tentative agreement to tender part of its shares to a group led by AME founder and chairman Andrew M. McIntyre, which has offered $37 million to buy the 55% of AME that McIntyre does not already own.

The employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) owns 1.2 million, or 25%, of AME, a Burbank provider of videotape services to the movie and television industries. AME last month accepted McIntyre’s sweetened offer of $13.75 a share; initially he offered $11.50 a share.

McIntyre said in a telephone interview that the ESOP has tentatively agreed to tender 35% to 40% of its shares for cash. The remaining shares would be exchanged for stock in AOAG, the company McIntyre’s group formed to make the acquisition.