Exhibit 99.1
WisdomTree Adopts Limited Duration Stockholder Rights Plan
Stockholders to Vote on Rights Plan at 2023 Annual Meeting
NEW YORK, NY – (BUSINESS WIRE) – March 17, 2023 – WisdomTree, Inc. (NYSE: WT) (“WisdomTree” or the “Company”), a global financial innovator, today announced that its Board of Directors (the “Board”) adopted a limited duration stockholder rights plan (the “rights plan”).
The rights plan is intended to protect WisdomTree and its stockholders from efforts by a single stockholder or group of stockholders to obtain control of WisdomTree without paying a control premium. The rights plan is similar to other rights plans adopted by publicly held companies and is intended to promote the fair and equal treatment of all stockholders and to allow stockholders to realize the long-term value of their investment.
The rights plan is substantially similar to the rights plan that the Company adopted last year, and provides several recognized stockholder protections, including the following:
| • | The rights plan will automatically expire on the day after the Company’s 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders (“2023 Annual Meeting”), unless approved by stockholders at the 2023 Annual Meeting, in which case it will expire in one year, on March 16, 2024; |
| • | The rights will be exercisable only if any person (or any persons acting as a group) acquires 10% (or 20% in the case of passive stockholders) or more of the Company’s outstanding common stock; |
| • | The rights plan has an exception for offers made for all shares of the Company that treat all stockholders equally, including a qualifying offer clause that provides stockholders the ability to call a special meeting for purposes of exempting a “qualifying offer;” |
| • | The rights plan does not contain any dead-hand, slow-hand, no-hand or similar features that would limit the ability of a future board of directors to redeem the rights; and |
| • | The rights plan does not preclude the Board from considering an offer that recognizes the full value of the Company. |
Additional Information on Stockholder Rights Plan
Pursuant to the rights plan, WisdomTree declared a dividend distribution of one preferred share purchase right on each outstanding share of the Company’s common stock and 1,000 preferred share purchase rights on each outstanding share of the Company’s Series A Non-Voting Convertible Preferred Stock. The record date for the dividend distribution is March 28, 2023. Initially, the rights will not be exercisable and will trade with the shares of WisdomTree common stock and Series A Preferred Stock. The rights generally will become exercisable if a person or group becomes an “acquiring person” by acquiring 10% (or 20% in the case of passive stockholders) or more of the common stock of WisdomTree (which includes stock subject to a derivative transaction or an acquired derivative security) or if a person or group commences a tender offer that could result in that person or group becoming an “acquiring person.” If a person or group becomes an “acquiring person,” each holder of a right (other than the acquiring person) would be entitled to purchase, at the then-current exercise price, such number of shares of common stock (or, subject to the terms of the rights plan, shares of preferred stock that are equivalent to shares of WisdomTree common stock) having a value of twice the exercise price of the right. If WisdomTree is acquired in a merger or other business combination transaction after any such event, each holder of a right would then be entitled to purchase, at the then-current exercise price, shares of the acquiring company’s common stock having a value of twice the exercise price of the right.
A person or group who beneficially owned 10% or more (or 20% or more in the case of passive stockholders) of WisdomTree’s outstanding common stock prior to the first public announcement by WisdomTree of the adoption of the rights plan will not trigger the rights plan so long as they do not acquire beneficial ownership of any additional shares of common stock at a time when they still beneficially own 10% or more (or 20% or more in the case of passive stockholders) of such common stock, subject to certain exceptions as set forth in the rights plan.