“Global Digital Solutions, Inc. (OTC-QB: GDSI), a company that is positioning itself as a leader in providing cyber arms manufacturing, complementary security and technology solutions and knowledge-based, cyber-related, culturally attuned social consulting in unsettled areas, today filed a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) providing information regarding three proposed transactions, including an unsolicited letter of intent to acquire Remington Outdoor Company, Inc., also known as Freedom Group, Inc. (“Freedom”),” money.cnn.com reports, without offering any guidance as to what “culturally attuned social consulting in unsettled areas” means. Bottom line . . .
GDSI has made an unsolicited offer to purchase freedom for $1.082 billion in cash. Freedom has estimated that its net sales for 2013 will be in the range of $1.250 billion to $1.275 billion and that its adjusted EBITDA will be in the range of $235 million to $240 million. The Form 8-K may be accessed at www.sec.gov or on GDSI’s website at www.gdsi.co.
So how’s that again? What does GDI want with Remington and the rest of the Freedom Group’s firearms-related manufacturers: Bushmaster Firearms, DPMS/Panther Arms, Marlin, H&R, The Parker Gun, Mountain Khakis, Advanced Armament Corp., Dakota Arms, Para USA and Barnes Bullets? Try this:
This model, which takes advantage of market trends, technological advances and industry consolidations to fuel profitable growth, presents a value proposition that is perfectly suited to the military armament industry, an industry that is heavily fragmented and evolving rapidly toward a RFID/WiFi-enabled technology platform. In this dynamic environment, we see enormous opportunity to consolidate this market with a program of targeted acquisitions, including the proposed Freedom transaction. Technological convergence is the future in the cyber/smart arms arena and we’re eager to leverage our proven history of success by helping Freedom and others navigate the transition from analog to digital.
Not buying it? Good thing you’re not writing the check.
The sale makes good on Cerberus Capital Group’s pledge to deep-six the Freedom Group in December 2012, after calling the Sandy Hook massacre “a watershed event that has raised the national debate on gun control to an unprecedented level.” Not-so-coincidentally after a California teachers’ union pension fund threatened to pull-out of Cerberus if they didn’t bail out of Freedom (which includes the company that manufactured the firearm Lanza used in his attack).