SunEdison, Vivint Solar merger off, Vivint citing breach of agreement

You may recall back in July 2015 when SunEdison announced its acquisition of residential solar systems provider Vivint Solar for a reported $2.2 billion. Well, the deal was scheduled to expire this month, and ahead of that deadline, Vivint Solar delivered a letter to SunEdison, Inc. last night notifying it that:

As a result of SunEdison’s failure to meet its obligations under the merger agreement pursuant to which the Company was to have been acquired by SunEdison, Vivint Solar has terminated such agreement. Vivint Solar reserves all rights under the merger agreement. In particular, SunEdison’s failure to consummate the merger when required pursuant to the terms of the merger agreement constitutes a willful breach of the merger agreement, and Vivint Solar intends to seek all legal remedies available to it in respect of such willful breach.

In February, SunEdison announced a new strategy for its Solar Materials operations focused on asset-light proprietary silicon production technologies via partnerships and joint ventures. As part of this strategy, the company closed and sold a few facilities.

“We are moving forward on several fronts with our asset-light strategy for the upstream solar materials business,” said Ahmad R. Chatila, SunEdison’s chief executive officer. “We believe our actions to re-engineer this business will maximize the value of our world-leading silicon production technologies, enabling SunEdison’s long term downstream growth and curtailing headwinds caused by trade actions and the commoditization of certain products.”

— Solar Builder magazine

[source: http://solarbuildermag.com/news/sunedison-vivint-solar-merger-off-vivint-citing-breach-of-agreement/]