CyberGuard Offers to Buy Secure Computing
biz.yahoo.com
1 hour, 25 minutes ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - CyberGuard Corp. (Nasdaq:CGFW - news) on Sunday said it made an unsolicited offer to buy rival computer security company Secure Computing Corp. (Nasdaq:SCUR - news), just days after Secure's shares plunged on a negative earnings forecast.
CyberGuard, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, didn't disclose the value of the one-for-one stock offer for Secure Computing, a San Jose, California-based company.
However, based on CyberGuard's closing share price Friday of $7.80, the offer for Secure's 35.58 million outstanding common shares would be valued at $277.5 million.
The offer comes after Secure's shares plunged about 36 percent on July 7 to $6.33 after it cut its second-quarter earnings forecast. Secure's shares closed at $6.37 on Friday on Nasdaq.
Steve Miller, Secure's vice president for worldwide marketing, said the company had received no formal offer from CyberGuard and declined further comment.
CyberGuard spokesperson Cynthia Sucher said the company plans to disclose more information on the offer on Monday morning before the stock market opens.
CyberGuard has a long-scheduled analyst meeting Monday in Palm Beach, Florida, and wanted to get word of the offer out prior to the meeting, said Sucher.
CyberGuard said a merger with Secure Computing would provide an estimated $14 million in annual cost savings. It said the savings would boost the earnings of each company by 20 cents per share, excluding any cost-cutting benefits.
CyberGuard had fiscal third-quarter 2004 revenue of $13 million, with a profit of 7 cents per share, excluding items. Secure Computing reported second-quarter revenue of $21.8 million and a profit of 6 cents per share, excluding items. |
