Plymouth Lane Capital Management LLC on Friday disclosed a 10.9%
stake in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. and encouraged the
company, on the verge of a $353 merger with Sequential Brands Group
Inc., to look for alternatives during the deal's "go-shop"
period.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
Plymouth asked the board of Martha Stewart Living to undertake a
"robust marketing process" to obtain other offers during the
period, and added that it would review its investment in the
company on a continuing basis.
Go-shop periods are provisions included in some deals that allow
companies involved to continue looking for competing offers for a
certain period even though a deal has been agreed to.
Martha Stewart Living, founded in 1997, earlier this week
reached a deal to be bought by Sequential, an acquisitive
retail-licensing company. Ms. Stewart herself is set to become a
"significant stockholder" of a new public holding company of
Sequential and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. She will also be
nominated to serve on the company's board. The agreed-upon deal is
half cash, half stock.
The $353 million valuation that comes with Monday's deal is a
far cry from the nearly $2 billion value the company soared to on
the day of its initial public offering, at the height of the
dot-com boom in 1999.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@dowjones.com
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