OpenTV’s board of directors is remaining neutral on the latest offer for the middleware and advertising solutions company by the Kudelski Group. “The board of directors has made no determination whether the offer is fair to and in the best interest of the holders of the shares,” the company said in an SEC filing.
The move should not come as a surprise given that six of the ten board members are either Kudelski officers or directors and a seventh has previously worked as a consultant.
Kudelski became the controlling shareholder of OpenTV in January 2007, when the company purchased shares held by Liberty Media Corporation. A subsequent $127 million (€99.63m) offer for OpenTV’s remaining shares was made in February 2009 and rejected by a Special Committee the following June as being “inadequate”.
The new $1.55 per share offer made on October 5 represented a 20% increase on the previous offer and represents $167.3m. It is open until November 6.
