Sitestar Increases Offer for Mothernature.com

Sitestar Corp., a small Encino-based Internet-investment company, has increased its offer to acquire the outstanding shares of online vitamin retailer Mother-nature.com to $1.15 per share, the company said.

The new offer is valued at about $18.06 million, up from the original figure of $11.36 million.

The new price represents a 53% hike over Sitestar’s original all-cash offer of 75 cents per share, made in late August. Mothernature.com closed Monday at 91 cents a share, unchanged.

After Sitestar made its original cash offer, Florida-based Vitacost.com, a privately held online seller of nutritional supplements, issued a stock-for-stock merger offer. Allen Josephs, president of Vitacost.com, said the offer was declined.

Clinton J. Sallee, president and chief executive of Sitestar, said his company was awaiting an official reply.

“We hope this offer compels management to immediately enter into a meaningful discussion with Sitestar,” Sallee said in a news release. “Regrettably, we have been unable to find a common ground on which to conduct these conversations thus far.”

Sitestar decided to increase its offer in an effort to attract further shareholder and management support, Sallee said.