GTSI’s acquisition plan clears shopping deadline

GTSI Corp.’s planned $76.67 million sale to Unicom Systems Inc. is a couple of steps closer to completion with the announced expiration of the "go-shop" period that allowed GTSI to seek a better offer and settlement of a class-action lawsuit.

According to the terms of the merger agreement, GTSI and its representatives were permitted to actively solicit alternative acquisition proposals for a period of 30 calendar days, the company’s June 12 announcement said.

That period expired at 11:59 p.m. New York City time on June 6.

On June 8, the GTSI board of directors confirmed that, while GTSI did receive a letter of interest, it did not receive any superior acquisition proposals during the "go-shop" period.

GTSI also has announced that it and other named defendants have reached an agreement in principle with plaintiffs to settle the consolidated class action lawsuit, Mark Oppenheim v. GTSI Corp. et al., which related to the proposed acquisition.

“The settlement will not affect the offer price to be paid in the tender offer by a subsidiary of Unicom or the merger consideration GTSI's stockholders would be entitled to receive pursuant to the terms of the Merger Agreement,” the announcement said.

Settlement is conditioned upon, among other things, negotiation of a memorandum of understanding, confirmatory discovery, final stipulation of settlement and receipt of final required court approvals, the announcement explained.

GTSI Corp., of Herndon, Va., ranks No. 73 on Washington Technology’s 2012 Top 100 list of the largest federal government contractors.