Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JCS) , today announced that its board of directors has declared a special dividend of $3.50 per share payable on October 15,, to CSI shareholders of record at the close of business on September 30.
The aggregate amount of the special dividend is approximately $34.0 million, to be funded from the net proceeds of the sale of CSI’s Transition Networks and Net2Edge businesses, which comprised substantially all of the assets of the Company’s Electronics & Software Segment to Lantronix, Inc. (NASDAQ: LNXT) that closed on August 2, 2021, and CSI’s existing cash on hand.
Roger Lacey, CSI’s Interim CEO, commented, “As long-time CSI shareholders know, the CSI board of directors has been very active in the last several years in both exploring and implementing strategic initiatives to deliver value to our shareholders.
“When we announced the merger agreement with Pineapple Energy on March 2, 2021, we stated that our first priority was ensuring that CSI shareholders received a return on their shares from the monetization of the legacy CSI businesses and assets. This return would be delivered pre-merger through special dividends and post-merger through the contingent value rights (CVRs) contemplated by the merger agreement.”
Lacey continued, “As a significant part of the CSI-Pineapple negotiation process, CSI’s board of directors ultimately determined that the Company would be able to deliver higher aggregate returns to its shareholders through monetizing each business and asset based on its own unique value proposition to a potential buyer in lieu of selling the entire legacy businesses as a whole.
“Subsequently, on April 28, 2021, we entered into the sale transaction with Lantronix for our Electronics & Software Segment that closed on August 2, 2021.”
CSI shares gathered $1.33, or 19.6%, to $8.12.
