At a special meeting in London, shareholders of NDS Group plc (Nasdaq: NNDS) approved yesterday its full acquisition by majority shareholder News Corporation.
News Corporation and funds controlled by private equity firm Permira Advisers will pay $63 per share, and would together own the entire company. The shares would be cancelled and NDS will become a private company. News Corporation will own 49%, and the Permira funds would own approximately 51% of NDS.
The proposed takeover was approved virtually unanimously.
While all regulatory approvals have been given for the deal, the next step remains approval by British courts, which will meet on January 27 and on February 4.
The original offer for NDS was $60 per share, and was subsequently raised to $63 per share. Since then, there have been changes for the worse in the global economy, and many transactions, including ones involving Israeli companies, have been affected. Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ALDN; TASE: ALDN) agreed to be acquired this week for $160 million, down from an earlier offer of $208 million. A purchase of Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT; TASE: GILT) for $475 million fell through completely.
Nonetheless, NDS COO Raffi Kesten does not expect any changes in the price, and that the deal will close at that level. "We are optimistic, and expect that the transaction will close at the price and parameters that were set. We have no indications that point to anything else."
"We were not surprised by the overwhelming majority. The deal is good for both the majority and minority shareholders."
NDS shares closed yesterday at $59.89, giving it a market cap of $3.5 billion.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 14, 2009
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