B. Riley Proposes Buyout of United Online

Los Angeles investment firm B. Riley Capital Management has proposed a negotiated transaction to purchase all of United Online Inc.’s outstanding shares, which the Internet company acknowledged on Monday. “United Online’s board of directors, in consultation with its financial and legal advisors, will carefully review and evaluate the proposal from B. Riley,” the company said in a statement. On a Nov. 3 conference call with analysts, Francis Lobo, the former chief executive of United, announced his resignation. The following day, Howard Marks, activist investor and former chairman of Activision, a video-game developer that is now part of Activision Blizzard Inc. in Santa Monica, announced the creation of Concerned Stockholders of United Online, or CSU. The group controls around 4.8 percent of United Online shares. United Online owns several Internet service provider companies, as well as websites and the customer loyalty program MyPoints and mobile commerce app Swappable. The company is headquartered in Woodland Hills. In recent years the company has divested its web assets. For example, floral ecommerce site FTD Cos. Inc. was spun off as a separate company in 2013. Earlier this year United Online sold social media site Classmates.com for $30 million, and it has announced plans to sell StayFriends, a European social media site. In late afternoon trading, United Online shares were down 34 cents or 2.8 percent to $11.67 on the Nasdaq.