NaviSite Reviewing Buyout Proposal From Chairman, CEO Group

NaviSite Inc. (NAVI) said its board has formed a committee of independent directors to consider a proposal from one-third owner Atlantic Investors LLC that values the Internet-backbone company at about $111.3 million.

Atlantic Investors' co-founders are NaviSite Chairman Andrew Ruhan and Chief Executive Arthur Becker. It made an offer last week to buy for $3.05 a share the portion of NaviSite that is doesn't already own. That's 9.3% above Friday's closing price of $2.79.

In a filing a week ago with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Atlantic Investors said that its proposal is "fair and in the best interest of the company and its stockholders and that the stockholders will find our proposal attractive." The stock traded as high as $3.31 in February and has more than doubled the past 52 weeks. Shares recently were inactive premarket.

NaviSite, which provides outsourced Web and e-commerce services, said in June it swung to a profit in its fiscal third quarter, snapping a long streak in the red as it benefited from selling assets, but results still fell short of analysts' forecasts at the time.

 
   -By Nathan Becker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2855; [e-mail]