On September 20, 2023, following previous discussions and a determination by the M&A Subcommittee that it would be prudent to hire an independent financial advisor who had no financial interest in the consummation of the Merger for purposes of obtaining an opinion regarding the proposed transaction, the Company discussed the potential transaction with representatives of Lincoln. Following this discussion, representatives of Lincoln provided an initial draft of its engagement letter to the Company on September 25, 2023. After a review of the engagement letter by the Company and Morgan Lewis, the engagement letter with Lincoln was executed on September 27, 2023. Lincoln’s compensation under such engagement letter is not contingent on the consummation of the Merger.
The first full paragraph on pg. 33 is amended and restated by replacing such paragraph in its entirety with the following (with new text underlined and in bold):
On the evening of October 13, 2023, the Company and Parent entered into the merger agreement. As of the date of the merger agreement, none of the Company’s directors or executive officers had entered into any agreement with Parent or any of its executive officers, directors or affiliates regarding employment with Parent or any of its affiliates, though Parent had conveyed during negotiations its expectation that unspecified members of management would be offered continued employment with the Company after closing. The Company issued a press release announcing the execution of the merger agreement later that evening.
The disclosure in the section entitled “The Merger” under the heading “Opinion of Lincoln International LLC”, beginning on page 38 of the Proxy Statement, is hereby amended as follows:
The final sentence of the fourth paragraph on pg. 41 is amended and restated by replacing such paragraph in its entirety with the following (with new text underlined and in bold):
The resulting estimated equity value range was then divided by the 18,912,636 shares of Common Stock outstanding, as provided by Company management, to derive a range of equity values per share of $4.83 to $5.27, as compared to the equity value per share of $7.00 in the Merger.
The following table on page 43 of the Proxy Statement is hereby amended as follows (with new text underlined and in bold):
Selected M&A Transactions Analysis
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | Enterprise Value as a Multiple of |
Announcement | | Target | | Acquiror | | Enterprise Value* | | LTM Revenue* | | LTM EBITDA* | | LTM Revenue | | LTM EBITDA |
August 2022 | | Sierra Wireless, Inc. | | Semtech Corporation | | $1,230 | | $593 | | $16 | | 2.07x | | NMF |
December 2021 | | Microlab/FXR LLC | | RF Industries, Ltd. | | 24 | | 16 | | 4 | | 1.52x | | 6.6x |
July 2021 | | TeraTron GmbH | | TXT e-solutions S.p.A. | | 12 | | 9 | | 2 | | 1.33x | | 7.2x |
June 2021 | | EXFO Inc. | | 11172239 Canada Inc. | | 366 | | 277 | | 26 | | 1.32x | | 14.1x |
May 2021 | | Nearfield Systems Inc. | | AMETEK, Inc. | | 230 | | 90 | | NA | | 2.56x | | NA |
March 2021 | | octoScope, Inc. | | Spirent Communications plc | | 73 | | 20 | | NA | | 3.65x | | NA |
December 2020 | | Allgon AB (publ) | | Bure Equity AB (publ) | | 120 | | 61 | | 10 | | 1.99x | | 12.2x |
August 2020 | | Microwave Vision S.A. | | HLD Associés | | 173 | | 114 | | 16 | | 1.51x | | 10.7x |
* $ in millions.
Note: LTM EBITDA figures were not available for the transactions involving Nearfield Systems Inc. / AMETEK, Inc. and octoScope, Inc. / Spirent Communications plc; the LTM EBITDA multiple was not meaningful for the transaction involving Sierra Wireless, Inc. / Semtech Corporation.
The final sentence of the fourth paragraph on pg. 43 is amended and restated by replacing such paragraph in its entirety with the following (with new text underlined and in bold):
The resulting estimated equity value range was then divided by the 18,912,636 shares of Common Stock outstanding, as provided by Company management, to derive a range of equity values per share of $4.79 to $5.11, as compared to the equity value per share of $7.00 in the Merger.
The final sentence of the first full paragraph on pg. 44 is amended and restated by replacing such paragraph in its entirety with the following (with new text underlined and in bold):
The resulting estimated equity value range was then divided by the 18,912,636 shares of Common Stock outstanding, as provided by Company management, to derive a concluded range of equity values per share of $4.81 to $5.19, as compared to the equity value per share of $7.00 in the Merger.
The final sentence of the second full paragraph on pg. 44 is amended and restated by replacing such paragraph in its entirety with the following (with new text underlined and in bold):
With the exception of a prior financial advisory assignment for the Company in 2023 in connection with a proposed transaction that was terminated, and for which Lincoln received customary compensation of approximately $93,000 (including reimbursement of expenses) and indemnification, no other fees have been paid to Lincoln and its affiliates by the Company, Parent or their respective affiliates during the past two years.
The disclosure in the section entitled “The Merger” under the heading “Financial Projections”, beginning on page 46 of the Proxy Statement, is hereby amended as follows:
The following table on page 46 of the Proxy Statement is hereby amended as follows (with new text underlined and in bold):
Financial Projections
The following table summarizes the financial projections as of October 2023:
Financial Projections Summary
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| | Fiscal Year Ended December 31, | |
($ in millions) | | 2023 | | | 2024 | | | 2025 | | | 2026 | | | 2027 | | | 2028 | |
Revenue | | $ | 82.3 | | | $ | 90.5 | | | $ | 97.2 | | | $ | 103.5 | | | $ | 109.7 | | | $ | 115.1 | |
Cost of Goods Sold excluding Depreciation and Amortization | | | (41.8 | ) | | | (45.7 | ) | | | (48.7 | ) | | | (51.9 | ) | | | (56.1 | ) | | | (58.8 | ) |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Gross Profit excluding Depreciation and Amortization | | | 40.5 | | | | 44.8 | | | | 48.5 | | | | 51.6 | | | | 53.6 | | | | 56.3 | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Depreciation and Amortization allocable to Cost of Goods Sold | | | (0.6 | ) | | | (0.6 | ) | | | (0.5 | ) | | | (0.5 | ) | | | (0.4 | ) | | | (0.5 | ) |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Gross Profit | | | 39.9 | | | | 44.2 | | | | 48.0 | | | | 51.1 | | | | 53.2 | | | | 55.8 | |
Operating expenses excluding Depreciation and Amortization and Stock Compensation Expense | | | (33.6 | ) | | | (35.8 | ) | | | (37.5 | ) | | | (38.6 | ) | | | (39.8 | ) | | | (40.8 | ) |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Depreciation and Amortization allocable to Operating Expenses | | | (3.6 | ) | | | (3.4 | ) | | | (2.9 | ) | | | (2.8 | ) | | | (2.2 | ) | | | (2.1 | ) |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Stock Compensation Expense | | | (1.1 | ) | | | (2.4 | ) | | | (2.5 | ) | | | (2.8 | ) | | | (2.6 | ) | | | (2.5 | ) |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Adjusted EBIT(1) | | | 1.6 | | | | 2.7 | | | | 5.1 | | | | 7.0 | | | | 8.6 | | | | 10.3 | |
Income Taxes @ 26.0% | | | (0.4 | ) | | | (0.7 | ) | | | (1.3 | ) | | | (1.8 | ) | | | (2.2 | ) | | | (2.7 | ) |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Net Operating Profit After Taxes | | $ | 1.2 | | | $ | 2.0 | | | $ | 3.8 | | | $ | 5.2 | | | $ | 6.4 | | | $ | 7.6 | |
Depreciation & Amortization(2) | | | 4.2 | | | | 3.9 | | | | 3.5 | | | | 3.2 | | | | 2.6 | | | | 2.6 | |
(Increase) / Decrease in Working Capital | | | 1.5 | | | | (1.6 | ) | | | (1.3 | ) | | | (1.3 | ) | | | (1.2 | ) | | | (1.1 | ) |
Capital Expenditures | | | (1.2 | ) | | | (1.2 | ) | | | (1.3 | ) | | | (1.5 | ) | | | (1.5 | ) | | | (1.5 | ) |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Free Cash Flow | | $ | 5.7 | | | $ | 3.1 | | | $ | 4.6 | | | $ | 5.6 | | | $ | 6.2 | | | $ | 7.7 | |
Adjusted EBITDA(3) | | $ | 5.8 | | | $ | 6.6 | | | $ | 8.6 | | | $ | 10.2 | | | $ | 11.2 | | | $ | 13.0 | |
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