'Poison pill' at Avigilon
By Martha Entwistle
Updated Wed January 13, 2016
Video surveillance company Avigilon on Tuesday adopted a "shareholder rights" plan, an anti-takeover measure that's sometimes called a "poison pill." The plan has been accepted by the Toronto Stock Exchange, but it needs to be approved by shareholders within six months. Avigilon plans to present the plan at is 2016 annual meeting.
Avigilon said it "is not aware of any proposed take-over bid at this time."
We've seen some major video surveillance acquisitions recently with Axis and Milestone being acquired by Canon, and recently, FLIR buying DVTEL.
One can see how Avigilon may be attracting attention from a larger entity looking to get into physical security. Avigilon has well-regarded video and access control technology, including the former VideoIQ portfolio. It owns a lot of video analytics IP, and I hear it has very good relationships with integrators. Plus its stock is down considerably. Yesterday its stock closed at $12.90; Avigilon's 52-week range is $11.20 to $25.62.
It's also had a lot of movement internally with managers. Here's a blog I wrote about that.
Under Avigilon's proposed shareholder rights plan, one "right" will be issued for each Avigilon common share. The rights can only be exercised if an aquirer announces an intention to acquire shares that would take their holding to "at least 20 percent of Avigilon's outstanding share capital." The rights would allow shareholders, "other than the acquirer, to purchase additional shares at a substantial discount." A "permitted take-over bid" would not trigger the rights plan.
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