: LL Flooring, formerly Lumber Liquidators, receives buyout bid valued at just over $90 million

LL Flooring Holdings Inc. LL, formerly known as Lumber Liquidators, received Tuesday a buyout bid from private equity firm F9 Investments LLC that values the wood floors maker at about $92.6 million. F9, which owns about 8.8% of LL Flooring’s shares outstanding, said it would pay $3 in cash for each LL share outstanding, which represents a 6.4% premium to Monday’s closing price of $2.82. The bid’s valuation of the company is a far cry from the company’s market cap of $3.3 billion at the stock’s peak in November 2013. LL’s stock fell 0.7% in premarket trading Tuesday, to trade within range of its Oct. 5 record closing low of $2.74. “We believe our offer represents a compelling, immediate, and certain cash value for LL’s shareholders, in light of the Company’s deteriorating financial condition and declining stock price, which in our view reflects the market’s lack of confidence in the current Board’s strategy,” said F9 owner Thomas Sullivan said. “LL Flooring’s most recent, dismal third quarter earnings performance further reflects the Board and management’s lack of urgency, credible plan, execution ability, or capacity to control costs despite numerous pledges to do so.” LL’s stock has plunged 49.8% year to date through Monday, while the S&P 500 SPX has advanced 14.9%.

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