Stock exchange shell company Fantasy Network (TASE: FNTS) announced yesterday the appointment of two joint CEOs, David Cohen and Dani Zadok, to replace Asaf Levy, who resigned last week after the company cancelled the merger with A-2-Z Blockchain Technologies last week. This puts an end to Fantasy Network's plans over the past six months to enter into the blockchain business.
In its notification of the cancellation of the merger last week, Fantasy Network stated that no money had been transferred to A-2-Z Blockchain Technologies under the cancelled loan agreement between the two companies.
In the past two weeks, Fantasy Network has dismissed several board members, among them previous chairman Gal Erez, external director Ronit Cohen, and directors Gilai Dolev and Ofer Rotem, who have also ceased to be parties at interest in the company. Reuven Yagana has been appointed chairman. Other newly appointed directors are David Cohen, yesterday named joint-CEO, Avraham Hazan, and Yomi Keshet. Cohen (29) is a lawyer by training, while Zadok (46) is a freelance consultant to underwriting and investment companies.
The board's decision to pull out of the merger deal was in response to demands from several shareholders, who wrote last month to the board stating: "The risk in an investment of the sort that for which the board seeks approval is unjustified, and is liable to harm the company's shareholders. The company in question is a research company with unproven technology, and its value is not based on a revenue forecast."
The shareholders added that they would "take steps to create substantial value for the company, and that to that end several alternative deals in preferable fields have been examined, for example in cannabis, which is a developing and regulated field."
Fantasy Network announced that it would enter the blockchain business six months ago. On December 10, 2017, following the company's notice to the stock exchange that it was examining possibilities in that field, its share price rose steeply, but fell back again after then Israel Securities Authority chairman Shmuel Hauser sounded warnings about investment in blockchain companies. Fantasy Network has a current market cap of some NIS 19 million, after a 15% fall in its share price so far this year.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 4, 2018
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