Second Attempt: Riot To Buy BitFarms With Nearly $1 Billion Offering

Key Points:

• Riot Platforms offers $950 million to acquire Bitfarms.
• The merger could triple Riot’s Bitcoin production.
• Riot seeks to add new directors to Bitfarms’ board.

Riot to buy Bitfarms for a second time, following Bitfarms’ previous rejection last month. The deal could triple Riot’s Bitcoin production.

Riot Platforms has placed a $950 million unsolicited offer on the table for the acquisition of Bitfarms. The move came after Bitfarms had earlier rejected Riot’s original offer last month.

After Management Shake-Up, Riot to Buy Bitfarms

The cash-and-stock offer of $2.30 per Bitfarms share represents a 20% premium to the stock price before Riot’s approach in April. Riot Platforms now owns a 9.25% stake in Bitfarms, making Riot the largest shareholder in Bitfarms.

Riot Platforms cited the recent management shake-up at Bitfarms as proof of corporate governance issues and said it intends to call for a vote to add new directors to the Canadian firm’s board.

The potential deal is one of the first signs of consolidation in the cryptocurrency mining sector after a code update in Bitcoin known as “the halving” reduced the revenues of miners. Large mining firms like Riot are on the hunt for expansion opportunities to adjust to the new industry dynamics.

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Potential Merger Could Make Riot World’s Largest Bitcoin Miner

A merger between Riot and Bitfarms would create the world’s largest Bitcoin miner and would more than triple Riot’s Bitcoin production and put it at par with its listed peers, Marathon Digital Holdings and CleanSpark Bitfarms’ shares rose 3.3% in Toronto to C$2.9 ($2.19) on Tuesday, giving it a market value of about $750 million. Riot’s market value is around $3 billion.

In an action preceding the merger deal news, Bitfarms removed interim CEO Geoffrey Morphy following a lawsuit Morphy filed against the company for breach of contract. Riot Platforms said Bitfarms’ board rejected its offer without any substantive discussion around a potential deal.

Riot is also planning to call for a special shareholders meeting to consider the appointment of several new independent directors after Bitfarms holds its annual meeting on May 31.