Spok's board mulling attainable sale following stress from activist investor Starboard Worth
Spok, an organization that gives scientific communication expertise to hospitals, is mulling “strategic options,” together with a attainable sale, after unsolicited curiosity in buying some or all of its shares.
In late August, Acacia Analysis Company made a proposal to amass all the excellent shares of frequent inventory of Spok for $10.75 per share in money, representing roughly $155 million in whole enterprise worth, in keeping with a submitting with the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee
Shares of Spok Holdings Inc. started buying and selling greater following the information of the proposed acquisition, MarketWatch reported. Spok affords the Spok Go cloud platform, which permits collaboration amongst medical care workforce members. The corporate works with greater than 2,200 hospitals that ship over 100 million messages every month by means of their Spok options, in keeping with the corporate.
Shares of Spok Holdings had been buying and selling 29% greater at $9.97 a share Monday morning.
In a press launch issued final week, Spok reported that greater than 5% of its shares have been not too long ago acquired by Acacia Analysis and its accomplice, activist hedge fund Starboard Worth.
Acadia Analysis seeks to amass “undervalued companies with a main concentrate on mature expertise, life sciences, industrial and sure monetary companies segments,” in keeping with the corporate. Starboard Worth is similar activist hedge fund that put stress on well being IT firm Cerner, which owned 1.2% of the corporate’s excellent shares, to make adjustments so as to increase its profitability.
In April 2019, Cerner reached a settlement with Starboard Worth so as to add new administrators to its board and purchase again extra of its shares. Cerner additionally agreed to take steps to enhance operations and dedicated to hitting sure working targets. The corporate additionally employed consulting agency AlixPartners to evaluate operations and prices.
RELATED: As activist investor steps in, analysts stay unsure about Cerner’s future
Underneath the settlement, Starboard was allowed to call 4 members to its board and Cerner additionally licensed a $1.2 billion inventory buyback.
With the help of monetary and authorized advisors, Spok’s board not too long ago initiated a evaluate of the corporate’s strategic options to guage potential transactions, together with a sale of the corporate, and different actions that might maximize worth for shareholders, Spok executives stated in a press launch.
The corporate reported $35 million in income for the second quarter of 2021, representing flat development from the identical interval a yr in the past. Spok introduced in $148 million for full-year 2020, down 8% from $160 million in 2019.
The board authorised a limited-duration shareholder rights plan to make sure the board can conduct an orderly evaluate of strategic options. “The rights plan won’t preclude the Spok Board from contemplating a proposal that’s truthful and in the very best pursuits of Spok shareholders,” executives stated within the press launch.
“Spok’s board is devoted to maximizing worth for all our shareholders,” stated Royce Yudkoff, chairman of the Spok board in a press release. “Our aim in disclosing our ongoing strategic options evaluate and adopting the rights plan is to make sure that all events have the chance to take part pretty and to supply the Board time to make an knowledgeable choice in the very best pursuits of Spok’s shareholders.”
It is not the primary time in current historical past an investor has put such seen stress on a healthcare firm to make adjustments.
Notably, well being IT firm Athenahealth skilled a large shakeup after activist investor Elliott Administration took a ten% stake within the firm in Could 2017. Elliott subsidiary Evergreen Coast Capital and personal fairness agency Veritas Capital purchased Athenahealth for $5.7 billion final yr.
