Very interesting. It somewhat fuels my thoughts that Pera would like to take Ubiquiti private in a relatively accelerated manner…of course he then also has that billion dollar basketball team hanging out there that he has to decide whether to take further control of or to let go. I posted the link below yesterday here on the board, but I will post it here too for convenience and since I’m not sure how many folks might have paid attention to it yesterday.
https://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2018/03/12/sources-…
IF, Pera decides to sell his stake in the Grizzlies at this time, that would give him upwards of $300M of personal cash if I’m not mistaken that he could likely use to buy back shares for himself.
Prior to hitting the submit message button for this post, I have gone and purchased April 20 2018 $75 UBNT call options (Tinker, this is one of those times I have felt compelled to do something).
Also, for convenience, here is the text of the SEC filing, with important aspect bolded for emphasis:
On November 8, 2017, the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. (the “Company”) approved a $50 million stock repurchase
program (the “November Program”). On February 6, 2018, the Board approved an additional $150 million stock repurchase program (the “February Program”,
together with the November Program, the “Prior Programs”). As of March 12, 2018, the Company had $7,241,024.28 available under the Prior Programs.
On March 13, 2018, the Board approved a new $200 million stock repurchase program (the “New Program”). Under the New Program, the Company may
repurchase up to $200 million of its common stock. The New Program expires on June 30, 2019. As part of the New Program, shares may be purchased from time
to time, depending upon market conditions, in open market transactions, including through block purchases, through privately negotiated transactions, or pursuant
to any trading plan that may be adopted in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 of the Exchange Act. The timing, manner, price and amount of any repurchases will be
determined in the Company’s discretion and the New Program may be suspended, terminated or modified at any time for any reason. The New Program does not
obligate the Company to acquire any specific number of shares, and all open market repurchases will be made in accordance with Rule 10b-18 of the Exchange
Act, which sets certain restrictions on the method, timing, price and volume of open market stock repurchases.
Only a bit over $7M remained of previous authorization. This shows that UBNT repurchases have been a pretty huge driver of the price recovery, but another $200M definitely screams that they aren’t quite done yet. Listen out for news about the Grizzlies ownership situation as that could very quickly turn this $200M buyback authorization into a $500-600M buyback essentially with Pera boosting his buying power substantially if he decides to sell (which I am definitely rooting for at this time).
