WebMD Health Corp. (Nasdaq: WBMD) announced today that it intends to commence a tender offer next week to purchase up to 3,000,000 shares of its common stock at a price per share of $50.00. The number of shares proposed to be purchased in the tender offer represents approximately 5.2% of WebMD's currently outstanding common shares. The NASDAQ Official Closing Price of WebMD's common stock on August 4, 2010 was $47.25 per share.
WebMD has approximately $520 million in cash and investments. WebMD will use a portion of its cash and investments to fund the tender offer. The Board of Directors of WebMD, after evaluating expected capital requirements of WebMD's operations and other expected cash commitments, believes that purchasing shares of WebMD's common stock in the tender offer represents a superior alternative to other available uses of the funds required for the tender offer.
None of WebMD, its Board of Directors, or the information agent for the tender offer will make any recommendations to stockholders as to whether to tender or refrain from tendering their shares into the tender offer. Stockholders must decide how many shares they will tender, if any.