No Deal: Jeff Smulyan's Buyout Offer For Emmis Expires

Still Publicly Traded

After several extensions of time to consider CEO JEFF SMULYAN's buyout offer, the board of EMMIS COMMUNICATIONS CORP. has not come to an agreement on the deal and the offer has expired.

In a letter to the board TODAY, SMULYAN wrote, "This letter is to confirm that the Proposal expired today pursuant to its terms and has not been extended. I am sorry we could not reach an agreement on the valuation. I look forward to continuing to work with you as we move EMMIS forward as a public company."

SMULYAN's offer through his E ACQUISITION CO. was for a cash payment of $4.10 per share to merge with EMMIS and sell or spin off its print magazine division (except for INDIANAPOLIS MONTHLY), Gospel WLIB-A/NEW YORK, and the company's TERRE HAUTE radio cluster.  In preparation for the move, deals to sell the TERRE HAUTE stations and TEXAS MONTHLY magazine were announced, but the offer expired before any other deals, meant to reduce the company's leverage, were announced.

In an SEC filing, EMMIS told the agency, "Mr. SMULYAN intends to review continuously his investment in the Issuer, the Issuer's business affairs, capital needs and general industry and economic conditions, and, based on such review, Mr. SMULYAN may, from time to time, commence discussions with directors of the Issuer regarding a potential offer with terms similar to or different than those of the proposal described herein, determine to make a similar proposal on similar or different terms than those of the proposal described herein, otherwise increase his ownership of the Issuer’s common stock, approve an extraordinary corporate transaction with regard to the Issuer... except that Mr. SMULYAN currently has no intention of selling any shares of the Issuer’s common stock."

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