Lionsgate spurns Icahn’s revised takeover bid

North American film and television company Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. (Lionsgate) yesterday turned down the latest hostile bid by the American corporate raider and billionaire investor Carl Icahn.

The board of directors of Lionsgate unanimously rejected the unsolicited revised offer from Icahn group to purchase all the outstanding common shares of Lionsgate for $6 per share or approximately $575 million, terming it financially inadequate, coercive and is not in the best interests of its shareholders.

Santa Monica, California-headquartered Lionsgate is a leading Canadian entertainment company formed in Vancouver with a strong presence in movies, television, home video, family entertainment, and digital distribution content. The company releases approximately 18-20 movies per year and produced around 69 hours of television programmes on an average for the last three years.

Over the past eight years the company's annual revenue has grown over 6.5 times from $184 million in fiscal 2000 to around $1.2 billion in fiscal 2008. The entertainment company employs over 800 people.

About a fortnight ago, Icahn group had submitted an unsolicited offer to by up to 13.16 million common shares of the company at an offer price of $6 per share. The group already holds approximately 18.6 per cent stake in Lionsgate.

The board of Lionsgate had snubbed the proposal as it undervalued the company.