Riot Platforms Seeking to Acquire Bitfarm in $950M Buyout Deal

The US-based crypto miners Riot Platforms have announced plans to acquire the Bitfarm at a $950 million deal. In a blog post, the Riot team anticipates that if the acquisition deal materializes, Riot will become one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miners.

The Riot team disclosed that the crypto exchange had presented its proposal to buy Bitfarms earlier last month. After a thorough review, the Bitcoin miner rejected the Riot offer. 

Riot Platforms to Acquire Bitfarm

A review of the Riot platform demonstrates that Bitfarm is the largest shareholder at Bitfarms, with a 9.25 % stake. Having actively participated in the development of Bitcoin mining, the Riot team plans to acquire Bitfarm at $2.30 per share. 

In a statement, the chairman of Riot Platform, Benjamin Yi, expressed his disappointment with Bitfarm’s decision to reject their proposal. The executive lamented that the Bitfarm team failed to hold dialogue with Riot about the proposed acquisition. 

Yi added that the Riot team has agreed with the Bitfarm decision with no objection. He believes that Bitfarm shareholders would have greenlight Riot’s acquisition plan to improve the attractiveness of the Bitcoin miner. 

In a subsequent report, the chief executive of Riot Platforms, Jason Less, confessed that the Bitfarm team had mismanaged the business since the departure of the former chief executive Geoffrey Morphy. 

Less expressed his concern that the Bitfarm board of directors, Nicola Bonta and Emiliano Grodzki, were not acting accordingly. The CEO confessed that Bitfarm’s decision to reject the Riot proposal was not in the best interest of the Bitfarm shareholders.  

Bitfarm Rejects Riot Acquisition Deal

Having ranked among the best-performing Bitcoin miners, the Riot team believes that offering Bitfarm will allow shareholders to add value to the project.

The Riot team anticipated that the Bitfarm shareholders would actively participate in a well-established Bitcoin mine if the acquisition deal were approved. Riot Platforms boasts of having a well-defined strategy and a forward-thinking management team.

He stated that dismissing the former CEO and top-level executive had raised questions. Since Murphy departure, the Bitfarm team has sought to hire a new CEO to replace Murphy. 

Despite leaving the Canadian crypto miner, Murphy was confident that Bitfarm would attain its 2024 goals. He said he enjoyed the support from the Bitfarm shareholders and management when he was the company CEO.

Having led Bitfarm in a direction that attracted success, the Bitcoin miner offered to retain Murphy on the board of directors.  On May 13, Murphy filed a lawsuit against Bitfarm for terminating his employment contract wrongly. 

Impact of 2024 Bitcoin Halving

Murphy submitted his $27 million lawsuit at the Superior Court of Ontario, claiming that Bitfarm violated the contract. Earlier, Bitfarm assured to retain Murphy as the CEO until they find a suitable candidate. 

The Bitfarm board has scheduled a Bitfarm shareholders meeting to appoint new board members. The Bitcoin miner stated that eligible candidates must be qualified and willing to work as independent directors for Bitfarm. 

Despite the leadership shakeup, Bitfarm was disappointed by its monthly revenue. On May 2, the Bitfarm earned 269 Bitcoin post the 2024 halving. 

The low returns compelled Bitfarm to consider upgrading its existing mining rigs to optimize crypto-mining activities. The Bitfarm will invest $240 million to acquire the proposed mining machinery. 

The Bitcoin miner intends to acquire 88,000 high computed mining machinery to remain profitable. According to a Coinshare report, Bitfarm was among the firms projected to generate high returns after the Bitcoin halving. 

The Coinshare prediction turned out the opposite after Bitfarm’s April earnings dropped 29%. On the contrary, the Bitcoin halving seems to favour the Riot Platform after the Bitcoin miner generated $211 million in Q1, a 131% increase in net income. 

The Q1 of 2024 earnings encourage the Riot to strive to become one of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miners. The Riot plan to increase its power capacity to 1.5 GW and self-mining capacity to 52 EH/s by the end of this year.