TORONTO, June 26, 2020 /CNW/ - Optiva Inc.
("Optiva" or the "Company") (TSX: OPT) announced
today that the three independent directors on its board of
directors have over the past several weeks been negotiating a
proposed financing transaction that would fund the redemption of
all of the Company's outstanding preferred shares. In the
course of those negotiations, the holder of the preferred shares of
the Company, ESW Capital, LLC ("ESW"), sought to remove two
of its nominees from the Company's board of directors and replace
them with other nominees. The independent directors rejected two
such nominees because of the nominee's relationship with ESW's
affiliate, ZephyrTel, on the basis that Optiva and ZephyrTel are
potential competitors.
Optiva received a letter today from ESW requesting that the
Company immediately engage in a renegotiation of all related party
agreements between the Company and ESW's affiliates (DevFactory,
Crossover and ZephyrTel) to address Optiva's claim that ZephyrTel
and Optiva are potential competitors. ESW asserts that it must
either dramatically reduce its involvement with Optiva or entirely
acquire Optiva. The letter also contains a preliminary,
non-binding indication of a willingness to explore a possible
acquisition of all of Optiva's subordinate voting shares.
EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. and Maple Rock Capital Partners,
which hold 18.1% and 22.1% of the Company's subordinate voting
shares, respectively, have advised the Company's independent
directors that they have no interest or intention of selling their
shares or voting in favour of any transaction on the non-binding,
preliminary indicative terms suggested by ESW, or in pursuing any
discussions with ESW regarding such a possible
transaction.
About Optiva Inc.:
Optiva Inc. is the leader in providing communication service
providers (CSPs) worldwide with cloud-native revenue management
software on the public cloud. Operators and MVNOs can integrate our
best-of-breed charging engine into a BSS stack or deploy our fully
managed, end-to-end, SaaS-based suite. Optiva solutions offer
unmatched speed, scale, security and savings. Our market knowledge,
analytical insights and unique Customer Success Program ensure
telecoms are equipped to achieve their strategic business goals.
Established in 1999, Optiva Inc. is on the Toronto Stock Exchange
(TSX: OPT). For more information, visit www.optiva.com.
SOURCE Optiva