What is Robert F.X. Sillerman up to this time? The master dealmaker so well known in the radio industry has acquired majority control of a dormant public company and is about to launch something new.
Sillerman Investment Company LLC has a deal to buy 120 million shares of Gateway Industries Inc. for three cents each, a total of $3.6 million. Sillerman will own approximately 98% of Gateway once the deal closes. The shares trade on the over-the-counter pink sheets as “GWAY” and news of the Sillerman investment sent the shares soaring to five cents each from the previous one cent.
UPDATE: As word spread the stock went as high as $2.90 on Tuesday (2/8) and closed at $1.89.
Going forward, the company plans to do a 1-for-10 reverse stock split and change its name.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Sillerman played it close to the vest about the new venture. Except to reveal that it is being called “Function (X),” the master wheeler-dealer refused to disclose what the new business will be. He did say that it will dwarf the CKX opportunity “by an order of magnitude.”
CKX is the company that Sillerman founded and formerly headed which owns the rights to “American Idol” and other shows via 19 Entertainment, plus the rights to the names and likenesses of Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali. Sillerman still owns over 21% of CKX and had tried to buy out other shareholders. That bid has gone nowhere recently, but is not officially dead.
RBR-TVBR observation: Whatever Bob Sillerman is up to, you know it will be interesting. The master dealmaker suffered some setbacks in the recession, such as having a Caribbean resort venture go into receivership, but that hasn’t stopped him from looking for something new to try. His successes in radio, Broadway, music venues, television and marketing Elvis and Ali have certainly outnumbered his failed ventures.
