Shareholders in spin at inferior E-cademy deal

By PETER GRIFFIN technology writer

Shareholders in online education company E-cademy are reeling from a decision to issue 200 million shares in the company to Australian investor MatrixIP for $400,000 instead of accepting a superior last-minute offer from New Zealand-listed company Cube Capital.

Cube managing director Simon Wallace said his company's deal, which included paying $475,000 for 158 million shares, might be revived if it were found that E-cademy's directors acted irresponsibly in not revealing details of the Cube offer to shareholders sooner. A complaint had been lodged with the Securities Commission.

Several shareholders have also laid complaints with the commission and the stock exchange, outraged that Cube's superior offer was not presented to those unable to attend Wednesday's shareholders meeting.

"Technically it was a shareholder vote but it was not a shareholder consensus," one shareholder said. "The directors employed defensive tactics to thwart a competitive bid."

Peter Atkinson, chairman of E-cademy and one of three directors instrumental in pushing the MatrixIP deal through, said it was a case of a bird in the hand being worth two in the bush.

"My regret is that Cube didn't launch their offer at least a week earlier but the extra eight weeks it would have taken to consider the Cube bid would have cost more than the extra $75,000 [Cube] was proposing."

E-cademy founder and managing director Wayne Johnson resigned on Wednesday but will fill a managerial "executive" role.

Mr Johnson favoured giving shareholders more time to consider the Cube deal. He said he would review his position over the next 90 days as he fulfilled his contract.

Directors Alex Roche and John Varnay also take up new positions in the company to make way for directors appointed by MatrixIP.