TMCnet News

Mark Cuban Opposes Register.com Merger
[August 10, 2005]

Mark Cuban Opposes Register.com Merger


By TED GLANZER
TMCnet Communications and Broadband Columnist

Billionaire Mark Cuban, maverick owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, on Wednesday announced the proposed $200 million merger of Register.com to Venture Capital Corp. is not in the best interests of shareholders of the domain name registar.



Cuban, who owns just over 3.3 million shares (or 13.2 percent) of Register.com's common stock, said that the merger would be "disastrous" and that he would oppose the merger if and when it is put to a shareholder's vote.

New York-based Register.com is a domain name registration company that also provides Internet services to businesses and consumers. According to a press release, the company has 2.9 million domain names under management.


Under the terms of the agreement, Register.com shareholders would receive $7.81 in cash for each share of common stock. The agreement comes just a few months after Register.com received an offer to sell the company to RCM Acquisition Co. for $7.10 a share.

"Vector Capital correctly recognized the great opportunity of owning one of the Internet's premier brands," Register.com Interim Chief Executive Officer David L. Moore said in a prepared statement yesterday. "Register.com's stockholders are receiving an attractive price, and Register.com's customers and employees will be in good hands under Vector's stewardship."

Cuban, however, disagrees.

"I do not see how this transaction could benefit anyone other than the current management who must be expecting to feather their own nests," Cuban said in a prepared statement. "The $200 million offering price does not come close to fairly valuing the business of this company."

Vector Capital is a San Francisco-based private equity firm that specializes in buyouts, spinouts and recapitalizations of established technology companies. Vector made headlines recently with its acquisition of BroadVision

---

Ted Glanzer is assistant editor for TMCnet. For more articles by Ted Glanzer, please visit:

http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100033&nm=Ted%20Gl
anzer

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]