Google tosses extra $27.5m on pile to buy On2 Technologies

Google sprinkled some much needed sugar over its bid to take over On2 Technologies today by agreeing to pony up $134m, after On2 shareholders grumbled that they were getting a raw deal from last August's original $106.5m offer.

“Under the revised terms, each outstanding share of On2 common stock will receive 0.0010 of a share of Google Class A Common Stock for each share of On2 common stock, as previously announced by On2 and Google, plus an additional $0.15 per share in cash consideration,” said On2 Technologies in a statement.

Google announced plans to buy the video software maker in August last year. Not long after that, some On2 investors mounted legal challenges against the firm, in which they opposed the world's largest ad broker’s proposed takeover.

At the time, several shareholders claimed the deal undervalued On2's regular investors, while benefiting the Clifton Park, New Jersey-based outfit’s execs, board members and staff.

By late October 2009, On2 bosses said they had settled the internal legal dingdong, but didn’t reveal what financial terms had been agreed.

Google’s buyout of On2 was expected to complete by the end of last year.

“The revisions to the terms of the merger agreement serve, in part, to address the fact that, since the acquisition was first announced in August 2009, the market value of Google's Class A Common Stock has increased significantly while the value of the acquisition has remained fixed for On2's stockholders,” acknowledged On2 today.

“By increasing the consideration offered to On2's stockholders by an additional $0.15 per share in cash, On2's stockholders will receive additional value for their On2 common stock that Google and On2 believe better reflects the value that On2's stockholders would have received had the acquisition closed closer to the time of its announcement in August 2009.”

Google said that the jacked up $134m bid constituted the firm’s final offer to buy the video compression tech outfit. ®