Black Dragon completes Grass Valley acquisition

Black Dragon has officially completed its acquisition of Grass Valley from Belden in a transaction that includes cash consideration plus various forms of deferred consideration. The gross cash consideration is $120m (£94m/€105m), or approximately $67m net of cash delivered with the business.

Belden will also invest $3m for an equity interest in Grass Valley with the right to put the equity back to Black Dragon at any time during the next 120 days.

The deferred consideration includes a $175m five-year seller’s note, up to $88m in PIK interest on the seller’s note over its five-year term, and $178 million US in potential earn-out payments.

The earn-out payments are based on certain performance thresholds. Both the seller’s note and the PIK interest are due to Belden after five years. Grass Valley’s financial results were presented as discontinued operations in our full-year 2019 and first quarter 2020 financial statements.

Roel Vestjens, president and chief executive of Belden, said: “This is an important milestone for Belden. We are pleased to announce the completion of this transaction, and we look forward to supporting the Black Dragon and Grass Valley teams during the transition. We are extremely excited about the opportunities for Belden going forward as we continue our transformation and align our portfolio of businesses around the favorable secular trends in industrial automation, cybersecurity, broadband and 5G, and smart buildings.”