JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Desilu Studios plans to go public in the United States as a second stage of a proposed acquisition of Israeli technology start-up Vonetize.
The U.S. film studio famous for producing classic shows such as "I Love Lucy", "Star Trek" and "The Untouchables" said on Friday that it had agreed a deal to take a controlling stake in Vonetize, the share price of which jumped 75 percent on Sunday.
Vonetize, whose technology enables over-the-top (OTT) live channel streaming and on-demand services, operates in 60 countries and has global partnerships with LG, Disney, Warner Brothers, Fox and Sony Universal among others.
Desilu said it had bought a 10 percent stake in cash from controlling shareholders at a company valuation of $50 million and received an option to buy a further 44 percent in the next 12 months.
Vonetize said on Sunday that Desilu would list in the United States to finance the deal for the rest of its proposed stake in the Israeli business.
Another route could be that Vonetize would dual-list on Nasdaq this year and then merge Desilu into that listing through a share-swap transaction, said Vonetize CEO Noam Josephides.
Some 40 percent of Vonetize's shares are in free float.
Josephides said that Vonetize already has approval for a Nasdaq listing this year but a decision had yet to be reached.
(Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by David Goodman)
