SFX Entertainment shares down after deal fails; other offers being sought

Shares of SFX Entertainment Inc. fell 4.32 percent to $1.33 Monday after the company said a deal by Southampton entertainment entrepreneur Robert F.X. Sillerman to take the producer of electronic dance music festivals private at $5.25 per share was dead.

In a statement released Monday morning, Sillerman, chief executive and chairman of SFX, said he planned to make a revised offer reflecting the decline in the stock price.

In a news release Friday afternoon, the Manhattan company said that a special committee of independent directors authorized continued efforts to find buyers for all or part of the company and that it had received "an indication of interest" at a price lower than the $5.25 offered by Sillerman on May 26, when the stock closed at $4.96. Since then, SFX stock has dropped.

That deal was valued at $774 million, including SFX debt, cash and other items.

The company said it was extending the sales process until at least Oct. 2.

In his statement, Sillerman said he would "continue to work cooperatively with the special committee as it seeks to obtain the best possible price."

SFX had set last Thursday as a deadline for Sillerman, who controls almost 40 percent of its stock, to produce firm financing commitments for his offer. Sillerman and the company didn't respond to requests for further comments.

SFX runs the Beatport online music store and produces electronic music events, including the Electric Zoo festival, scheduled to be held on Randalls Island in September.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.