Tulsa, Okla. – Liberty Broadband Interactive today said it has reached a definitive merger agreement to acquire all of the outstanding stock of interactive TV-system developer Wink Communications.
Wink’s board of directors approved the merger, which now awaits approval by Wink’s shareholders and ‘the satisfaction of other conditions to closing, including regulatory approval.’
Under the terms of the agreement, Wink stockholders will receive $3 in cash for each share of Wink common stock.
Stockholders, including Wink’s founder, its CEO and Benchmark Capital, representing approximately 20 percent of the outstanding shares of Wink have entered into voting agreements to approve the transaction.
The companies said they expect the merger to be completed during the third quarter of the year.
‘We are thrilled to be working with LBIT and the Liberty Media family and expect to realize synergies from the leverage of our response network, relationships with partners, technology assets and management expertise across their television businesses,’ said Maggie Wilderotter, Wink’s CEO. ‘The combination of experience, partners and proven technology will expand and accelerate the ITV business.’
Wink ‘has been the leading provider of complete, end-to-end technology solutions for delivering interactivity as well as processing the related responses. With more than five million interactive-enabled homes served by its network, it is the clear leader in domestic interactive deployments across multiple cable and satellite platforms,’ said Peter C. Boylan III, LBIT CEO.
‘Maggie and the Wink management team have done a great job at solving some very difficult technical issues including the full development of the time consuming and expensive back office infrastructure that is so important and often overlooked as it relates to true t-commerce and interactivity.’
Wink Communications will continue to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of LBIT under the leadership of Maggie Wilderotter and her management team. Greenbridge Partners LLC acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Wink on this transaction.
The company has deals with a number of cable and satellite set-top box manufacturers to incorporate receivers for its interactive TV system to millions of decoders and descramblers around the country. The Wink receivers were also included in a number of television sets early in Wink’s history.
Both the DirecTV and EchoStar direct-to-home satellite systems support the Wink programming, as do many cable systems around the country.
