Barnes & Noble Education completes Immersion transactions, announces new board

Barnes & Noble Education (BNED) announced that it has successfully closed its milestone equity and refinancing transactions with Immersion Corporation (IMMR) and certain of the company’s existing stockholders and strategic partners. These transactions will provide than $100M of new equity and provide a strong foundation for future growth and profitability. The company received gross proceeds of $95M of new equity capital through a $50M new equity investment and a $45M fully backstopped equity rights offering; the transactions infused approximately $80M of net cash proceeds after transaction costs; The company’s existing second lien lenders, affiliates of Fanatics, Lids, and VitalSource Technologies, converted $34M of outstanding principal and any accrued and unpaid interest into shares of common stock of the company, par value $0.01 per share, and the Company amended and extended its existing asset based loan facility agented by Bank of America, pursuant to an agreement with its first lien lenders, providing the company with access to a $325M revolving loan facility maturing in 2028. The amended ABL Facility will enhance BNED’s financial flexibility and reduce its annual interest expense. Effective at the closing of the transactions, as approved by BNED stockholders, five new directors and two existing directors were appointed to the company’s board of directors: Eric Singer, president, CEO and chairman of the board of Immersion Corporation; Emily Hoffman, chief marketing officer of SmartPak; Sean Madnani, CEO of Twist Capital; William Martin, chief strategy officer of Immersionl; Elias Nader, CFO of QuickLogic; Kathryn Eberle Walker, member of BNED board since 2022; Denise Warren, member of BNED board since 2022. Additionally, effective at the closing of the transactions, Mario Dell’Aera Jr., David Golden, Michael Huseby, Steven Panagos, Vice Admiral John Ryan, Rory Wallace, and Raphael Wallander resigned from the Company’s board of directors.