NaviSite Inc. (NAVI) said its board has formed a committee of
independent directors to consider a proposal from one-third owner
Atlantic Investors LLC that values the Internet-backbone company at
about $111.3 million.
Atlantic Investors' co-founders are NaviSite Chairman Andrew
Ruhan and Chief Executive Arthur Becker. It made an offer last week
to buy for $3.05 a share the portion of NaviSite that is doesn't
already own. That's 9.3% above Friday's closing price of $2.79.
In a filing a week ago with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, Atlantic Investors said that its proposal is "fair and
in the best interest of the company and its stockholders and that
the stockholders will find our proposal attractive." The stock
traded as high as $3.31 in February and has more than doubled the
past 52 weeks. Shares recently were inactive premarket.
NaviSite, which provides outsourced Web and e-commerce services,
said in June it swung to a profit in its fiscal third quarter,
snapping a long streak in the red as it benefited from selling
assets, but results still fell short of analysts' forecasts at the
time.
-By Nathan Becker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2855; nathan.becker@dowjones.com