Takeover Bid for Fisher Plaza Owner

The owner of Fisher Plaza, a key data center hub in Seattle, has rejected an unsolicited takeover offer from a Canadian real estate company. But Huntingdon Real Estate Investment Trust has gone public with its $220 million bid for Fisher Communications (FSCI), hoping to sway Fisher's investors with a premium to the current price of their shares. On Dec. 6 Huntingdon made a private offer for an all-stock deal valued at about $23.99 a share.

Fisher's board considered Huntingdon's offer and "concluded that the proposal is not in the best interest of the shareholders," the company said in a press release. Fisher Communications owns 20 television stations and eight radio stations, including Seattle’s KOMO TV and KOMO radio stations, which are housed in Fisher Plaza.

Fisher Plaza is a Class A office, data center and retail campus near the Space Needle with approximately 294,000 rentable square feet. Internap (INAP) has a significant data center presence at Fisher Plaza, while other industry tenants include Adhost, Cogent Communications (CCOI), Electric Lightwave, AboveNet, Global Crossing, Time Warner Telecom and Qwest. Fisher Plaza also operates its own colocation space in the building.

A 2009 fire at Fisher Plaza  caused $6.8 million in damages, with Fisher Communications recovering about $5.8 million from insurers. The July 2, 2009 incident knocked payment processor Authorize.net offline, disrupting e-commerce for thousands of web sites.