SonoSite to buy back $100M of its stock
Published 11:45 am Wednesday, January 20, 2010
BOTHELL — SonoSite, a developer of hand-held ultrasound devices, issued a proposition to stockholders Tuesday: The company is looking to repurchase up to $100 million of its stock.
The mass-purchase will follow a “Dutch auction” format, meaning shareholders can offer to sell stock at any price between $26.10 to $30 per share. SonoSite will buy as many shares as possible given its $100 million budget — and stockholders who underbid will receive the highest approved price.
The buy-up was approved earlier this month by the company’s board of directors. The board approved a $150 million expenditure of company cash to buy the stock, and the auction is one part of that plan.
“After evaluating various opportunities for two years, we concluded that the best investment of our cash was in our own stock,” SonoSite President Kevin Goodwin said.
He said the offer will let some stockholders get out at a premium over trading prices, and give the remaining shareholders better long-term earnings potential.
The board of directors is not making a recommendation about whether shareholders should cash in their stock, according to a SonoSite statement released Tuesday.
A minimum price of $26.10 per share would translate to 3,831,417 shares repurchased by SonoSite, about 22 percent of the company’s outstanding common stock.
The offer expires at 2 p.m. Pacific time Friday, unless SonoSite extends the deadline. Interested stockholders should go to www.sec.gov for the tender-offer statement and other documents related to the sale.
SonoSite is headquartered in Bothell and distributes products in more than 100 countries. The company’s preliminary revenue projection for 2009 was about $227 million, That’s a decrease of about 10 percent from 2008, excluding revenue from the recent acquisition of CardioDynamics International Corp.
SonoSite’s stock ended Tuesday trading at $28.89, a $0.73 increase for the day.
Read Amy Rolph’s small-business blog at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/TheStorefront. Contact her at 425-339-3029 or arolph@heraldnet.com.
