As predicted last week by RBR/TVBR, Westwood One has filed to sell $50 million of stock. Some of the shares will be newly minted, while some will come from the company’s majority shareholder, the Gores Group.
The filing with the SEC really contains no new revelations about WW1 finances, since proxies were recently sent out for a shareholders meeting this Friday to approve several measures relating to the company’s refinancing. That deal kept the company out of bankruptcy court, but severely diluted existing shareholders as the company reduced debt and the Gores Group poured in new cash.
As previously reported, Thomas Weisel Partners LLC has been retained to handle the stock offering. The number of shares has not been set, but will total $50 million in value. The blanks have not been filled on the prospectus for how much of the offering will be new shares issued by the company and how much will be sold to the public from the Gore Group’s 75.1% equity stake in WW1. For the latter, the proceeds would go to the Gores Group, rather than into WW1’s coffers.
Making the stock offering should improve liquidity for shareholders by increasing the public float. WW1 is set to go through a 1-for-200 reverse split following approval at Friday’s shareholders meeting.
