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Financial Press Releases
Company Settles Proxy Contest With Foxhill and Appoints a Foxhill Nominee to the Board REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. — Jun 03, 2009 — iPass Inc. (NASDAQ: IPAS), a global provider of services that unify the management of enterprise mobility, today announced that its board of directors has determined to take steps to return up to $40 million to stockholders under certain conditions, which determination has been reflected in a settlement agreement with Foxhill Opportunity Master Fund, L.P. (Foxhill). iPass also announced that, as part of the settlement agreement with Foxhill, the iPass board of directors has agreed to immediately appoint a Foxhill nominee, Kenneth H. Traub, to the board of directors. In return, Foxhill will withdraw its previously announced notice to solicit proxies to elect three of its nominees on the iPass board of directors at the 2009 annual meeting of stockholders. As a result, Foxhill will not be delivering any proxies it receives at the 2009 annual meeting. The settlement agreement calls for the board of directors to declare a $20 million cash dividend to stockholders "as soon as practicable" following stockholder approval, at a special meeting of stockholders, of an amendment to iPass' outstanding stock options and equity awards, and related plans. The amendment would provide that the value of the equity awards would not be impaired by the dividend. The special meeting is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2009. The board of directors has also determined to return up to an additional $20 million to stockholders by the end of 2009 through a tender offer, cash dividend or other form determined by the board of directors, subject to certain conditions. Mr. Traub, the Foxhill nominee, will serve a term that expires at the 2009 annual meeting. Given that he met certain conditions, the board of directors agreed to nominate him at the 2009 annual meeting for election to a term that expires at the 2012 annual meeting. Mr. Traub is a private investor and strategic management consultant. Mr. Traub served as vice president and corporate advisor of JDS Uniphase Corporation (JDSU), a provider of optical products and test and measurement solutions for the communications industry, from February 2008 to September 2008. He served as president, chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of American Bank Note Holographics (ABNH), a producer and marketer of optical security devices, from April 1999 to February 2008, at which time ABNH was acquired by JDSU. Mr. Traub managed an extensive turnaround of ABNH, and under his leadership, ABNH's stockholders enjoyed a gain of over 1000% from 2001 through the sale to JDSU. He will serve as the Foxhill designee, and will be appointed to the iPass board's Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee and the Compensation Committee. iPass also announced that it intends to appoint Gary Griffiths to the board of directors, following the resignation of an incumbent director after the 2009 annual meeting. Mr. Griffiths will be nominated at or shortly following the 2009 annual meeting. With the election of this candidate and of Mr. Traub, the board of directors will be fixed at 10 directors. The size of the board of directors will not be increased to more than 10 directors before the 2010 annual meeting pursuant to the terms of the settlement agreement. Gary Griffiths is chairman and CEO of LiteScape Technologies, a private company that develops and sells VoIP and mobile software applications. Prior to joining LiteScape, Gary was a vice president at Cisco and President of Product and Operations at Web-EX prior to its acquisition by Cisco. Griffiths is a thirty-five year veteran of the high-tech industry. Griffiths was the founding CEO of on-demand desktop management company Everdream, which was sold to Dell in 2007. In 1995, he was co-founder and CEO of SegaSoft Networks, one of the pioneers in interactive entertainment, which was sold to Sega in 1999. Gary held senior management positions with IBM for more than 16 years. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Gary served as an officer aboard nuclear fast attack submarines for five years, and was an associate professor of systems engineering at the US Naval Academy. Gary has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the United States Naval Academy and an M.S. in business administration from the George Washington University. He is on the board of directors of Silicon Graphics International (NASDAQ: SGI) and Simco Electronics, and is an advisor to Parthenon Capital and a number of private technology companies. Under the settlement agreement, until December 31, 2010 (or earlier if a Foxhill nominee no longer serves on the board of directors), Foxhill will support the iPass board of directors' proxy slates and not support or participate in any "withhold the vote" or similar campaign or support any nominees other than the board of directors' slate; will not propose or support any proxy resolutions or conduct any proxy solicitations against the recommendation of the board of directors; and will propose nominees or proxy resolutions only to the board of directors' Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. The settlement agreement also provides that the iPass board of directors will continue to recommend that iPass stockholders vote in favor of the proposal to declassify the board at the 2009 annual meeting. "The board will welcome the contributions of the new Directors, and is pleased that this agreement will allow everyone at iPass to keep their focus on achieving positive operating cash flow and non-GAAP profitability in fiscal 2009," said Evan Kaplan, president and chief executive officer of iPass. "The determination to return significant cash to our stockholders is a strong statement of the board's confidence that we are well on the path toward completing our corporate transformation and driving renewed revenue growth and profitability." Neil Weiner, the managing member of Foxhill Capital Partners, LLC, the investment manager of Foxhill, commented, "We are very pleased that the board has determined to return capital to stockholders and to appoint one of our highly qualified nominees who is committed to maximizing the value of iPass shares for all stockholders, and continues to support the declassification proposal." Mr. Weiner added, "We are encouraged by the board's responsiveness to stockholders and believe Mr. Traub and Mr. Griffiths will add significant expertise to the board." As previously reported, iPass had approximately $68 million in cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments at March 31, 2009, and 62.6 million shares outstanding as of April 30, 2009. About iPass About Foxhill Cautionary Statements In addition, the return of capital described above is subject to certain conditions being met, which if they do not occur may result in no amounts, or a lesser amount, being returned to stockholders in the form of a dividend, stock repurchase or other form. iPass® is a registered trademark of iPass Inc. Tender Offer Statement # # #
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