Web.com Group Inc (WWWW): Okumus Strikes Deal and Appoints Two Directors

After going activist a couple of months ago, Okumus Fund Management, an activist fund led by Ahmet Okumus, has stroke a deal with the board of Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW), under the terms of which the board appointed two new independent directors, John Giuliani and Rick Rudman. Okumus is the largest shareholder of Web.com Group, holding around 7.78 million shares, which represent 14.8% of the company’s outstanding common stock.

Okumus is a New-York based long-short fund that focuses on companies from the mid- and large-cap equity space. The fund manages an equity portfolio valued at around $532 million that contains nine stocks, mainly from the technology sector, which amasses two-thirds of the portfolio. Okumus added Web.com Group to its equity portfolio during the third quarter and quickly amasses a significant position that at the end of September contained around 7.16 million shares worth $143.05 million. The position was the largest in terms of value at the end of September and represented around 27% of the total equity portfolio value.

Throughout the last three months of 2014, Mr. Okumus has been raising his fund’s exposure to Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW). The fund bought around 1.40 million shares in October and it further raised its stake to the current amount of 7.78 million shares in December. Also in December, Okumus went activist on the company and said that it may engage in discussion with the company and make proposals regarding to the capitalization, ownership structure, board composition or operations of the company.

Web.com Group Inc (NASDAQ:WWWW) is a $830 million market cap company that is engaged in providing Internet services for small- and medium-sized enterprises. The company offers registration of domain names, website design, search engine optimization and marketing and other services. Following the appointment of Okumus’ nominees to the board, Web.com Group’s board has been expanded to nine members.