Blinkx revives bid for Miva

(by Richard Holway) I note that, after getting its $1.20 bid for Miva rejected earlier this year (see my post at the time Miva rejects Blinkx bid) , Blinkx has now returned with a $0.55 cash bid. Given that this is a 100+% premium on Miva’s closing price yesterday, it’s a rather good ‘sign of the times’. See Marketwatch – Blinkx revives Miva proposal.

One of the points I made in my Exits article last week is that many trade buyers are holding back believing that today’s supposed bargains will be even greater bargains next year. The converse of this is that $0.55 per share cash perhaps might not look so good today to Miva’s shareholders but it might look like a “ABN moment” next year.

Blinkx was a spinout from Dr Mike Lynch’s Autonomy. I rated it so much that I bought in at the IPO at 45p. Not the best investment decision as the price has more than halved since. Blinkx does video search – a market area that I can really understand. Indeed, as more and more video content gets onto the internet, its value and use can only increase. Miva is a digital media ad agency. The combination of the two really does make sense.

Blinkx is a ‘young little British battler’ (as my colleague Anthony Miller might say) To make such a play for a much larger US NASDAQ quoted company is not only brave but pretty uncommon.

Blinkx is up 15% at c17p this morning on the news