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InFocus To Be Acquired for Less Than $1 Per Share

infocus_logo_0409InFocus Corporation, the one-time leader of digital projection, today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with Image Holdings Corporation (IHC), an Oregon company controlled by John Hui, an accomplished entrepreneur and co-founder of eMachines. Under the terms of the agreement IHC and its wholly-owned subsidiary, IC Acquisition Corp. (IC), will make an all cash tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of InFocus stock at $0.95 per share, or approximately $39 million in total.

The Board of Directors unanimously recommends that InFocus shareholders accept and tender their shares into the offer, which represents a 36 percent premium over the April 9th closing price of $0.70, the last trading day prior to the agreement, and a 90 percent premium over the last 30 day average closing price of $0.50. The offer will be subject to the tender of a minimum of 65 percent of InFocus outstanding shares and other customary conditions, including the absence of any material adverse effect on the InFocus business. The offer and a subsequent merger that will result in InFocus becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of IHC are expected to close in the second quarter of 2009.

We spoke to Ben Joy, Product Line Manager at InFocus, and he said they viewed the acquisition positively because “going private saves [InFocus] significant time and money that can be used more effectively in running the business. It also allows [InFocus] to be more ‘stealth’ with what [they’re] going – like all [their] competitors.”

This deal is far from done, as you can imagine, as there are all sorts of legal and governmental hurdles that need to be crossed, but we at rAVe wish InFocus the best as they enter this endeavor that will, hopefully, yield a better company.  Think about it, if this deal goes down, the one-time giant of the projector business will have been sold for about $40 million.

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