Private investors to buy CompuDyne

Compudyne Corp., a provider of products and services to the public security sector, has agreed to be acquired by a group of private investors for about $59.1 million cash.

The investor group consists of affiliates of The Gores Group of Los Angeles and industry executive Stuart Mackiernan.

Upon closing, Mackiernan will become the president and chief executive of Compudyne, replacing Martin Roenigk.

A number of factors resulted in the company's decision to go from public to private, Roenigk said in a statement issued today.

"Given our relatively small size, complex structure and the inordinate costs of being a public company in the post-Sarbanes Oxley era, a sale of the entire company to an organization that has the financial and managerial resources to continue to build CompuDyne without the managerial diversion and financial drain of public company requirements seemed the most appropriate step to take," he said.

Mackiernan was most recently corporate vice president for business development and president and CEO of L-3 Satellite Networks. He also has held senior positions at GE Capital Spacenet Services, General Dynamics Corp., Science Applications International Corp. and Unisys Corp.

The investment group has agreed to pay $7 for each of the company's approximately 8.4 million shares.