Investor Group Launches Dataproducts Tender Offer
A New York investor group that has threatened a takeover of Dataproducts Corp. for the past year formally launched a tender offer Friday for the Woodland Hills-based computer printer maker.
The group, DPC Acquisition Partners, offered $10 a share cash, or $189.7 million, for the Dataproducts shares it does not already own. DPC currently owns 7.6% of Dataproducts’ 20.5 million total common shares outstanding.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, DPC also said that, if it gains control of Dataproducts, it plans to liquidate the company “as promptly as possible.”
DPC offered no details on the proposed liquidation or on how it would affect the company’s work force.
Dataproducts spokesman Robert Wolcott said the company had no immediate comment.
In August, DPC had proposed buying the company for $15 a share in cash and securities. But the group dropped the offer after Dataproducts rejected it and instead unveiled a major restructuring plan that includes the sale of its Dataproducts New England unit, which accounted for 14% of Dataproducts’ $353.4 million in sales for the fiscal year ended March 25.
James M. Hennessy, general counsel of Crescott Inc., a New York holding company that is one of the DPC partners, declined to explain why the group lowered its offering price, except to say the current price is “appropriate.”
DPC’s offer was 10% higher than Dataproducts’ closing price Thursday of $9.125 a share--a premium that caused little excitement on Wall Street. After the offer was announced, the stock closed unchanged Friday in American Stock Exchange composite trading.
DPC said its tender offer is conditioned on, among other things, its ability to obtain financing. The group said Chase Manhattan Bank gave it “reasonable assurance” that it could raise the necessary cash.
