(
)
An activist shareholder in The Outdoor Channel thinks the media company is worth more than $8 a share in cash and stock — and stands ready to put its money where its mouth is, The Post has learned.
UTR, an outspoken critic of The Outdoor Channel’s merger with InterMedia Outdoors — which values TOC at $8 a share in cash and stock — said yesterday it and deep-pocketed backers are ready to make an all-cash bid that tops the existing offer.
UTR would not name the investors — except to say they are hollywood heavyweights.
TOC in November agreed to a $208 million merger with InterMedia Outdoors, which runs the The Sportsman Channel.
TOC’s founding family and directors control 43 percent of the stock, and plan to vote their shares in the March 13 shareholder vote.
InterMedia will wind up with 68 percent of the combined business.
TOC reaches 36 million US households — which it claims makes it the country’s largest hunting and fishing channel.
UTR, which in a letter to TOC’s board last week said it owns a greater than 2 percent stake in the company, asked the founding Massie family to recuse themselves from the vote.
With the Massie family support, the merger is all but certain to be approved.
A TOC spokesman said the company’s board believes the proposed merger would give the combined channels more power with cable companies and advertisers — and is therefore better for shareholders than an outright sale at prices it has received up to this point.
“The board firmly believes that it has acted in a manner that is consistent with its obligations to its stockholders throughout the process, and will continue to act in a manner consistent with its obligations to its stockholders and its obligations under the merger agreement,” the spokesman said.
Outdoor’s shares closed yesterday up 0.5 percent at $7.61.