GTSI to be sold to Unicom for $76.67M

Cash tender offer is unanimously approved by special committee of GTSI directors and GTSI board.

GTSI Corp., which experienced a 46.5 percent revenue decline in fiscal 2011 and an SBA suspension in the fourth quarter of 2010, will be sold to an affiliate of Unicom Systems Inc., a global IT company and part of the Unicom group of companies through a cash tender offer at $7.75 per share, according to a GTSI filing today with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The transaction is expected to be worth $76.67 million, according to the May 7 GTSI filing.

Under the terms of the agreement, which was unanimously approved by a special committee of independent GTSI directors and GTSI's full board of directors, the tender offer is not subject to any financing contingencies.

"The announcement of this offer represents an attractive opportunity to deliver premium value and liquidity to GTSI's shareholder," said Sterling Phillips, GTSI's president and CEO in the filing statement.

“I am excited about the potential for future growth with a strategic partner of Unicom's stature and global reach. There is an excellent opportunity to realize short- and long-term benefits for our customers, employees and OEM partners," Phillips said.

“The acquisition of GTSI represents the next step in expanding Unicom's ability to deliver world-class IT products and services to enterprise customers," Corry Hong, Unicom founder and CEO said.

The per share purchase price of the tender offer represents a premium of 47.9 percent over GTSI's closing stock price as of May 5, 2012, and 65.6 percent over its one-year average closing stock price.

GTSI, of Herndon, Va., ranks No. 68 on Washington Technology’s 2011 Top 100 list of the largest federal government contractors.