Current Report
Delaware 0-12699 94-2606438
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(State or Other Jurisdiction (Commission (IRS Employer
of Incorporation) File Number) Identification No.)
(a) ACQUISITION OF COMBINED DISTRIBUTION (HOLDINGS) LIMITED. On November
26, 1997, Activision, Inc. ("Activision" or the "Company") completed the
acquisition of Combined Distribution (Holdings) Limited, a privately held
company based in Birmingham, England, which is the parent company of CentreSoft
Limited and PDQ Limited ("CentreSoft"). CentreSoft is engaged in the business
of distributing software products in the United Kingdom and, to a lesser extent,
continental Europe.
The transaction was structured as a share exchange in which the Company
issued 2,787,043 shares of its common stock, $0.000001 par value (the "Common
Stock"), for all the outstanding capital stock of CentreSoft. The Common Stock
issued by the Company in the transaction had a market value at the time of the
closing of the transaction of approximately $44 million. In addition, an option
to acquire shares of CentreSoft was canceled and in exchange for the
cancellation the holder of the option was granted an option to purchase 50,325
shares of Common Stock. The transaction will be accounted for as a pooling of
interests.
The shares of Common Stock were issued to the holders of CentreSoft capital
pursuant to an exemption from registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as
amended (the "Securities Act"). The Company is required to use its best
endeavors to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission on or before
January 5, 1998 a registration statement covering such shares for resale by the
holders. The CentreSoft stockholders have agreed, however, not to sell or
otherwise dispose of any of the Common Stock received by them in the transaction
until after the issuance by Activision of its first earnings press release
including at least 30 days of combined operations. The Company anticipates that
this earnings release will be issued in the fourth week of January, 1998.
The following pro forma results of operations assume that the CentreSoft
transaction had occurred as of April 1,1996. The Company anticipates filing an
amendment to this report within 30 days which will contain the audited
consolidated financial statements of CentreSoft and the unaudited pro forma
condensed combined financial statements of the Company and CentreSoft.
(b) ACQUISITION OF NBG EDV HANDELS & VERLAGS GMBH. Also on November 26,
1997, a wholly-owned indirect German subsidiary of the Company acquired NBG EDV
Handels- und Verlags GmbH ("NBG"), a privately held software distributor and
publisher based in Burglengenfeld, Germany, and Target Software Vertriebs GmbH
("Target"), a small affiliated software retailer. The transaction was
structured as a share for share exchange in which the Company issued 263,048
shares of Common Stock to the two holders of capital stock in NBG and Target in
exchange for their equity interests in these companies. At the time of the
closing of the transaction, the Common Stock issued by the Company had a market
value of approximately $4.4 million. In addition, as part of the transaction, a
wholly owned indirect German subsidiary of Activision acquired the real property
(including land and buildings) used by NBG and Target that was owned by the two
equity owners of NBG and Target, in exchange for the assumption by such
subsidiary of certain debt secured by a mortgage on the property. The total
debt on the property was approximately DM1,250,000 (approximately $725,000).
Approximately DM650,000 (approximately $377,000) of this debt is guaranteed by a
German government entity that assists small businesses and will therefore be
required to be repaid by the Company in the near future. The transaction will
be accounted for as a pooling of interests.
The shares of Common Stock were issued to the holders of NBG and Target
capital stock pursuant to an exemption from registration under the Securities
Act. The Company is required to use its best efforts to file with the
Securities and Exchange Commission within 60 days after the closing of the
transaction, a registration statement covering such shares for resale by the
holders. The NBG and Target stockholders also have agreed, however, not to
sell or otherwise dispose of any of the Common Stock received by them in the
transaction until after the issuance by Activision of its first earnings
press release including at least 30 days of combined operations. The Company
anticipates that this earnings release will be issued in the fourth week of
January, 1998.
Activision announced on December 5, 1997 that it intends to make a private
offering of $75,000,000 in Convertible Subordinated Notes (and up to an
additional $25,000,000 in Notes to cover over-allotments). The Notes will bear
interest at a rate which is yet to be determined, and will be due approximately
seven years after issuance. The Notes also will be convertible, in whole or in
part, at the option of the holder at any time after 60 days following the latest
date of original issuance of the Notes and prior to the close of business on the
business day immediately preceding the maturity date, unless previously redeemed
or repurchased into shares of Common Stock. The Notes will be redeemable, in
whole or in part, at the option of the Company at any time approximately three
years after issuance.
The Notes will be offered to a limited number of purchasers pursuant to a
Rule 144A placement. The net proceeds of the offering are expected to be used
to finance its product development and product acquisition efforts, support its
corporate acquisition program and fund general corporate working capital needs.
The Notes to be offered by Activision will not be registered under the
Securities Act and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent
registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission or the availability of
an applicable exemption from such registration requirements.
(a) FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OF BUSINESS ACQUIRED.
The Company will file the financial statements required by this item
by an amendment to this report, which the Company anticipates will be
filed within 30 days.
(b) PRO FORMA FINANCIAL INFORMATION.
The Company will file the financial statements required by this item
by an amendment to this report, which the Company anticipates will be
filed within 30 days.
(c) EXHIBITS.
10.1 Share Exchange Agreement dated November 23, 1997, among
Activision, Close Securities Limited, Andrew R. Waterhouse, David
Neal, Gary C. Hawkins, Norman C. Brown, Richard A. Steele, Roger
G. Swindells, Steven G. Varnish and Simon A. Hunt.
10.2 Share Exchange Agreement dated November 26, 1997, among
Activision, Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH, Detlef Erhardt and
Ingrid Herrmann.
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
Date: December 5, 1997
Year Six Months
ended ended Sept. 30,
March 31, ------------------
1997 1996 1997
--------- --------- -------
Net revenues $ 154,644 $ 36,561 $ 79,529
--------- --------- -------
--------- --------- -------
Net income (loss) $ 9,226 $ (1,210) $ (3,576)
--------- --------- -------
--------- --------- -------
Net income (loss) per share $ 0.50 $ (0.07) $ (0.19)
--------- --------- -------
--------- --------- -------
By /s/ Barry Plaga
----------------------------
Name: Barry J. Plaga
Title: Senior Vice President and
Chief Financial Officer
for the exchange of the whole of the issued share capital of Combined Distribution (Holdings) Limited for stock in Activision Inc.
(1) The persons listed in Schedule 1
(2) Activision, Inc.
Dated 23 November 1997
LONDON OFFICE
Hillgate House, 26 Old Bailey, London EC4M 7HS
Telephone 0171 600 0155 Facsimile 0171 248 9934
1. Definitions and interpretation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
2. Conditions to Completion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3. Transfer and Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4. Consideration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
5. The Stock and Option Retention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
6. Pre-Completion obligations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
7. Completion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
8. Restriction on Sale of the Consideration Stock and Option Stock . . 25
9. Registration of the Consideration Stock and Option Stock. . . . . . 26
10. Release of guarantees. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
11. Warranties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
12. Warrantors' remedies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
13. Activision's remedies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
14. Limitations on liability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
15. Conduct of claims. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
16. Intentionally Deleted. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
17. General. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
18. Announcements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
19. Costs and expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
20. Notices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
21. Governing law and jurisdiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Schedule 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Part I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
(Allocation of Consideration Stock). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Schedule 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
(The Shareholders) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Schedule 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
(Information concerning the Company) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Schedule 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
(Information concerning the Subsidiaries). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Schedule 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
(Warranties) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
1. CAPACITY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
2. OWNERSHIP OF SHARES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3. ARRANGEMENTS BETWEEN GROUP COMPANIES AND WARRANTOR. . . . . . . . . 54
4. COMPANY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5. SUBSIDIARIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6. INSOLVENCY OF THE GROUP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
7. STATUTORY BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS FILED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
8. ACCURACY AND ADEQUACY OF INFORMATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
9. PREPARATION AND CONTENTS OF THE ACCOUNTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
10. ACCOUNTING RECORDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
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11. MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 12. EVENTS SINCE THE ACCOUNTS DATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 13. FINANCIAL COMMITMENTS AND BORROWINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 14. WORKING CAPITAL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 15. INSURANCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 16. CONTRACTS AND COMMITMENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 17. TERMS OF TRADE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 18. PRODUCT LIABILITY AND YEAR 2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 19. LICENCES AND CONSENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 20. TRADING PARTNERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 21. COMPETITION AND TRADE REGULATION LAW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 22. COMPLIANCE WITH LAW. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 23. LITIGATION AND DISPUTES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 24. OWNERSHIP AND CONDITION OF ASSETS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 25. STOCK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 26. CHARGES AND ENCUMBRANCES OVER ASSETS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 27. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 28. DIRECTORS AND EMPLOYEES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 29. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 30. PENSIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 31. TITLE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 32. ENCUMBRANCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 33. PLANNING MATTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 34. STATUTORY OBLIGATIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 35. ADVERSE ORDERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 36. CONDITION OF THE PROPERTIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 37. LEASEHOLD PROPERTIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 38. TENANCIES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 39. CONTAMINATION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 40. OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 41. EVENTS SINCE THE ACCOUNTS DATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 42. LIABILITY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 43. RECORDS AND COMPLIANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 44. VAT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 45. BALANCE SHEET VALUES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 46. CLOSE COMPANY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 47. GROUP TRANSACTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 48. CAPITAL GAINS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 49. DEDUCTIBLE EXPENSES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 50. DIVIDENDS AND DISTRIBUTIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 51. INHERITANCE TAX AND GIFTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 52. ANTI-AVOIDANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 53. OVERSEAS MATTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 54. CAPACITY OF ACTIVISION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 |
55. DUE ORGANISATION OF ACTIVISION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
56. DUE AUTHORISATION OF CONSIDERATION STOCK . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
57. SEC DOCUMENTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
58. MATERIAL ADVERSE CHANGE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Schedule 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
(Particulars of the Properties). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
1.Freehold properties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
2.Leasehold properties.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.Particulars of the Tenancies.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Schedule 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Dividend Payment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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THIS AGREEMENT is made the 24 day of November 1997
BETWEEN:
(1) THE PERSONS whose names and addresses are set out in Part II of
Schedule 1; and
(2) ACTIVISION, INC., a Delaware corporation whose main office is at 3100
Ocean Park Boulevard, Santa Monica, CA 90405, USA ("ACTIVISION")
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BACKGROUND:
The Shareholders have agreed with Activision to exchange the Company Shares (as defined below) for the Consideration Stock (as defined below) on the terms of this Agreement and Hunt (as defined below) has agreed with Activision to terminate the Share Option (as defined below) in exchange for the Hunt Options (as defined below).
IT IS AGREED as follows:
1. Definitions and interpretation
1.1 In this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires, the following words have the following meanings:
"THE ACCOUNTS" the audited balance sheet as at
the Accounts Date and the audited
profit and loss account for the
fiscal year ended on the Accounts
Date of each Group Company, including
all documents required by law to be
annexed to them and, in the case of
the Company, the audited consolidated
balance sheet as at that date and
the audited consolidated profit and
loss account for that year;
"THE ACCOUNTS DATE" 30 April 1997;
"ACTIVISION WARRANTIES" the representations referred to in
clause 11.2 and set out in Part II
of Schedule 4 and "Activision
Warranty" means any one of them;
"THIS AGREEMENT" this Agreement (including any
schedule or annexure to it and any
document in agreed form);
""A" ORDINARY SHARES" 47,059 "A" ordinary shares of 1p
each in the capital of the Company
in issue at the date of this
Agreement and at Completion;
"THE ARTICLES" the Articles of Association of the
Company for the time being;
"THE BOARD" in relation to each Group Company,
its board of directors;
"B" ORDINARY SHARES" 19,608 "B" ordinary shares of 1p
each in the capital of the Company
in issue at the date of this
Agreement and at Completion;
"BUSINESS DAY" a day (other than a Saturday or a
Sunday) on which clearing banks are
open for business in the City of
London;
"CHANGE OF CONTROL" that control of the Company (as
control is defined in S.416 ICTA
1988) is transferred to Activision;
"CLAIM" a claim by Activision against all
or any of the Warrantors in
connection with the Surviving
Shareholders' Warranties;
"CODE" the United States Internal Revenue
Code of 1986, as amended, and the
regulations thereunder;
"THE COMPANY" Combined Distribution (Holdings)
Limited, details of which are set
out in Schedule 2;
"COMPANY SHARES" the Ordinary Shares, "A" Ordinary
Shares, "B" Ordinary Shares,
Convertible Preference Shares,
Redeemable Preference Shares and
Loan Stock in issue at Completion
as set out in Schedule 2;
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"COMPLETION" the completion of the exchange of
the Company Shares for the
Consideration Stock and the
termination of the Share Option in
exchange for the granting by
Activision of the Hunt Options under
this Agreement;
"COMPUTER PROGRAMS" all or any part of a set of
instructions whose purpose is to
cause a data processing machine
to perform certain functions or
operations whatever the form of the
program (whether in source code or
in human-readable form, or object
code or machine-readable form, and
whether or not compiled or assembled);
"THE CONSIDERATION" the consideration payable by Activision
to the Shareholders for the Company
Shares and to Hunt for the Share Option
under clause 4;
"THE CONSIDERATION STOCK" new common stock par value $0.000001 per
share of Activision calculated in
accordance with Clause 4 and as set out
in Schedule 1;
THE "CONTRACTORS" Eidos, Sony, Hasbro, Virgin Interactive,
Ocean, Interplay, Bizarre Love Triangle,
Mindscape, The Mousepad Company and
Soldout Limited;
"CONVERTIBLE PREFERENCE 133,333 convertible preference
SHARES" shares of L1 each in the capital of
the Company in issue at the date of
this Agreement and at Completion;
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"COPYRIGHT" all copyright arising under English
law (whether under the Copyright
Designs and Patents Act 1988 or
otherwise) in all original works,
Computer Programs (in whatever
form), customer lists, databases
and any other work in which
copyright subsists, together with
all copyrights and/or rights of
like nature arising (whether by
operation of law, registration or
otherwise) in any other part of the
world; and the right to apply for
the same and the benefit of any and
all licences in connection with the
foregoing;
"DANGEROUS SUBSTANCE" (whether in the form of a solid,
liquid, gas or vapour) the
generation, transportation,
storage, treatment, use or disposal
of which (whether alone or in
combination with any other
substance) gives rise to a risk of
causing harm to human health,
comfort or safety or harm to any
other living organism or causing
damage to the Environment;
"THE DISCLOSURE LETTER" the letter of the same date as this
Agreement in the agreed form from
the Warrantors or their solicitors
to Activision or its solicitors,
together with all attachments and
which disclose matters that are
exceptions to the Shareholders
Warranties;
"DIVIDENDS" the dividends or interest with
respect to the Company Shares
payable on 30 November 1997 as
detailed in Schedule 6;
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"DOCUMENTATION" all user manuals and other
materials which accompany any unit
of Software made generally
commercially available and all
other technical, reference and/or
other manuals or documentation,
whether intended for internal or
external use in relation to any
Software;
"EMPLOYEE SHAREHOLDERS" the persons whose names and
addresses are set out in Part IIB
of Schedule 1;
"THE ENVIRONMENT" the environment as defined in
Section 1(2), Environmental
Protection Act 1990;
"ENVIRONMENTAL any permit, exemption, filing
CONSENT" requirement, licence or
registration from time to time
necessary or desirable under
Environmental Law;
"ENVIRONMENTAL LAW" any directive, treaty, code of
practice, circular, guidance note
and the like, in each case of any
jurisdiction, in force or enacted
relating or pertaining to the
Environment, any Dangerous
Substance, human health, comfort,
safety or the welfare of any other
living organism;
"ESCROW AGENT" City National Bank, a national bank
organised under the laws of the
United States with offices in
Beverly Hills, California, USA;
"ESCROW AGREEMENT" the agreement in the agreed form
between (1) Activision, (2) the
Warrantors and (3) the Escrow
Agent;
"THE GROUP the Company and any Subsidiary of
COMPANIES" the Company (details of which are
set out in Schedule 3) (together
"THE GROUP") and "GROUP COMPANY"
means any of them;
"GUARANTEE" any guarantee, suretyship,
indemnity, bonding liability or
similar contingent liability;
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"HUNT" the person whose name and address
is set out in Part IIC of Schedule
1;
"HUNT CONSULTANCY the Agreement made between the
AGREEMENT" Company and Carmel Industrial
Securities Limited dated 28 June
1996;
"THE HUNT OPTION the stock option agreements in the
AGREEMENTS" agreed form between (1) Activision
and (2) Hunt;
"HUNT OPTIONS" the options created by the Hunt
Option Agreements;
"ICTA" the Income and Corporation Taxes
Act 1988;
"INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY" all Patents, Copyrights, Marks,
Know How and Other IPR's;
"INVESTOR SHAREHOLDER" the person whose name and address
is set out in Part IIA of Schedule
1;
"KNOW-HOW" all rights anywhere in the world in
and to all industrial and
commercial trade secrets and
confidential and secret research,
development, design, inventions,
ideas, information, data, skills,
products, processes, drawings,
logos and specifications;
"LIABILITY TO TAXATION" (i) any liability of a Group
Company to make actual payments of
Taxation regardless of whether such
Taxation is chargeable or
attributable directly or primarily
to a Group Company or to any other
person;
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(ii) the loss of any Relief which
would (were it not for the loss)
have been available to any Group
Company and which has been treated
as an asset in preparing the
Accounts or taken into account in
computing (and so reducing) any
provision for Taxation (including
deferred taxation) which appears in
the Accounts (or which, but for the
availability or presumed
availability of such Relief prior
to its loss would have appeared in
the Accounts); and
(iii) the setting off against any
liability to Taxation or against
Profits earned, accrued or received
on or before Completion of any
Relief which arises in respect of
any Transaction effected on or
after Completion in circumstances
where, but for the setting off, any
Group Company would have had an
actual liability to Taxation;
"LOAN STOCK" L2,000,000 Secured Subordinated
Loan Stock 1998-2000 of the Company
constituted by a deed dated 28 June
1996 (THE "LOAN STOCK DEED");
"MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS" the unaudited consolidated
management accounts of the Group
for the period from 1 May 1997 to
the Management Accounts Date
(comprising a consolidated balance
sheet, trading account and profit
and loss account for the Group) and
all notes, reports, statements and
documents annexed or attached
thereto;
"MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS DATE" 31 October 1997;
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"MARKS" all trade marks, servicemarks and
logos whether registered in the UK
or unregistered (including
applications for registration
thereof) together with all rights
of like nature arising (whether by
operation of law, registration or
otherwise) out of the same in any
part of the world and the rights to
apply for the same and the benefit
of any and all licences in
connection with the foregoing;
"MODIFICATION" in relation to any Computer Program
and/or Documentation, includes any
translation (whether into another
computer and/or national language),
adaptation, enhancement,
modification, variation, bug-fix
and error correction, howsoever, by
whomsoever and for whomsoever made;
"NASDAQ" The NASDAQ National Market,
maintained by the NASDAQ Stock
Market, Inc.;
"OPTION STOCK" the shares of Activision common
stock issued or issuable on
exercise of the Hunt Options;
"ORDINARY SHARES" the 100,000 ordinary shares of 1p
each in the capital of the Company
in issue at the date of this
Agreement and at Completion;
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"OTHER IPR'S" all designs (registered or
unregistered), utility models and
all other intellectual or
industrial property rights
(including without limitation as to
secrecy or confidence) arising
(whether by operation of law,
registration or otherwise) under
English law or in any other part of
the world to the extent that the
same are not otherwise included
within the definitions of
Copyright, Marks, Patents and Know
How and the right to apply for the
same and the benefit of any and all
licences in connection with the
foregoing;
"PATENTS" letters patent and the right to
apply for letters patent in any
part of the world and any similar
rights situated in any country; and
the benefit of any and all licences
in connection with the foregoing;
"THE PENSION SCHEMES" the Company's pension schemes being
The Standard Life Group Personal
Pension Plan implemented on 1 July
1996 and Stanplan A for the Company
commenced on 27 November 1996;
"THE POLICIES" all insurance policies in relation
to which any Group Company has any
interest and "POLICY" means any of
them;
"PROFITS" income, profits and gains, the
value of any supply and any other
consideration, value or receipt
used or charged for Taxation
purposes and references to "PROFITS
EARNED, ACCRUED OR RECEIVED"
include Profits deemed to have been
earned, accrued or received for
Taxation purposes;
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"THE PROPERTIES" the leasehold properties
particulars of which are set out in
Schedule 5 and "THE PROPERTY" means
any of them;
"REDEEMABLE PREFERENCE 800,000 redeemable preference
SHARES" shares of 10p each in the capital
of the Company in issue at the date
of this Agreement and at
Completion;
"RELEVANT CLAIM OR any claim or surrender to or by any
SURRENDER" Group Company of:
group relief under Chapter IV, Part
X, ICTA;
advance corporation tax under
Section 240, ICTA; or
a tax refund under Section 102,
Finance Act 1989;
"RELIEF" any loss, relief, allowance,
exemption, set-off, deduction,
credit or right to repayment of
Taxation and references to the
"LOSS OF ANY RELIEF" include the
loss, reduction, counteraction,
disallowance, setting-off against
Profits, crediting against a
liability to make an actual payment
of Taxation or failure to obtain a
Relief and "LOSE" and "LOST" shall
be construed accordingly;
"RESTRICTIVE COVENANT deeds in the agreed form between
DEEDS" Activision (1) and each of the
Employee Shareholders (2)
containing certain restrictive
covenants to be entered into at
Completion;
"SEC" the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission;
"SERVICE AGREEMENTS" agreements in the agreed form
between the Company and each of the
Employee Shareholders to be entered
into at Completion;
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"SHAREHOLDERS" the Employee Shareholders and the
Investor Shareholder together;
"THE SHARE OPTION" an option to subscribe for 3,030
ordinary shares of 1p each in the
Company granted by the Company to
Hunt under an agreement dated 28
June 1996;
"SHAREHOLDERS' the representations referred to in
WARRANTIES" clause 11.1(a) and set out in Part
I of Schedule 4, and "SHAREHOLDERS'
WARRANTY" means any one of them;
"SOFTWARE" all or any of the Computer Programs
and Documentation forming part of,
and all or any Modification to:
(a) any computer software made
available and/or licensed by a
Group Company as at or at any time
before today's date whatever
version number or release;
(b) any computer software in the course
(at whatever stage) of development
by a Group Company, including any
recorded idea for a proposed new
computer software product or
solution and any computer software
in the course of planning,
development, trialling or testing
(whether alpha, beta or otherwise)
or evaluation;
(c) any Computer Programs otherwise
developed by a Group Company for
the Group's own business or that of
any third party;
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(d) any Computer Programs acquired by
the Group for licensing to its
customers;
"SUBSIDIARIES" any subsidiaries within the meaning
of Sections 736 and 736A, Companies
Act 1985 and any subsidiary
undertakings within the meaning of
Sections 258 and 259, Companies Act
1985 from time to time, details of
which are set out in Schedule 3,
and "SUBSIDIARY" means any of them;
"SURVIVING the representations and warranties
SHAREHOLDERS' referred to in clause 11.1(b) and
WARRANTIES" the following clauses set out in
Part I of Schedule 4, namely 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7.4, 8.1, 9, 11, 13.5,
13.6, 23, 24.1, 31.1, 31.2, 31.5,
33.4, 34.1, 37.7, 38.1 and 41 to
53, inclusive and "SURVIVING
SHAREHOLDERS' WARRANTY" means any
one of them;
"TAXATION" all forms of taxation and
statutory, governmental,
supra-governmental, state,
provincial, local governmental or
municipal impositions, duties,
contributions and levies (including
withholdings and deductions),
whether domestic or foreign,
whenever imposed and all penalties,
fines, charges, costs and interest
relating to any such matters and
"TAX" shall be construed
accordingly;
"TAX AUTHORITY" any taxing or other authority, body
or official competent to
administer, impose or collect any
Liability to Taxation;
"TCGA" the Taxation of Chargeable Gains
Act 1992;
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"THE TENANCIES" any tenancies or other occupational
arrangements under which the
Properties are held by third
parties, particulars of which are
set out in Schedule 5;
"TERMINATION DEED" the deed in the agreed form
terminating the Share Option
between the Company (1) and Hunt
(2);
"TRADING DAY" a day on which stock in Activision
can be traded on NASDAQ;
"TRANSACTION" any transaction, deed, act, event,
omission, payment or receipt of
whatever nature and whether actual
or deemed for Tax purposes;
"UNITED KINGDOM" OR the United Kingdom of Great Britain
"UK" and Northern Ireland;
"UNITED STATES" OR "US" the United States of America;
"VATA" the Value Added Tax Act 1994 and
all other statutes, statutory
instruments, regulations and
notices containing provisions
relating to value added tax;
"WARRANTIES" the Shareholders' Warranties and/or
the Activision Warranties;
"WARRANTORS" the Shareholders and Hunt;
"WARRANTORS ASSOCIATE" each of the Warrantors and any
persons connected with any of them
within the meaning of Section 839,
ICTA;
"YEAR 2000 CONFORMITY" that neither performance nor
functionality is affected by dates
prior to, during and after the Year
2000, in particular:
Rule 1: No value for current date will
cause any interruption in
operation;
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Rule 2: Date-based functionality must
behave consistently for dates prior
to, during and after Year 2000.
Rule 3: In all interfaces and data storage,
the century in any date must be
specified either explicitly or by
unambiguous algorithms or
inferencing rules;
Rule 4: Year 2000 must be recognised as a
leap year;
(all as defined by the British Standards
Institution in Document DISC PD2000-1).
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1.2 In this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires:
(a) words in the singular include the plural and vice versa and words in one gender include any other gender;
(b) a reference to a statute or statutory provision includes:
(i) any subordinate legislation (as defined in Section 21(1), Interpretation Act 1978) made under it;
(ii) any repealed statute or statutory provision which it re-enacts (with or without modification); and
(iii) any statute or statutory provision which modifies, consolidates, re-enacts or supersedes it;
(c) a reference to:
(i) any party includes its successors in title and permitted assigns;
(ii) a "PERSON" includes any individual, firm, body corporate, association or partnership, government or state(whether or not having a separate legal personality);
(iii) clauses and schedules are to clauses and schedules of this Agreement and references to sub-clauses and paragraphs are references to sub-clauses and paragraphs of the clause or schedule in which they appear;
(iv) any provision of this Agreement is to that provision as amended in accordance with the terms of this Agreement;
(v) any document being "IN THE AGREED FORM" means in a form which has been agreed by the parties on or before the date of this Agreement and for identification purposes signed by them or on their behalf by their solicitors;
(vi) "INDEMNIFY" and "INDEMNIFYING" any person against any circumstance include indemnifying and keeping him harmless from all actions, claims and proceedings from time to time made against him and all loss or damage and all payments, costs or expenses made or incurred by that person as a consequence of or which would not have arisen but for that circumstance; and
(d) except as set out in sub-clause 1.1, terms defined in the Companies Act 1985 and ICTA have the meanings attributed to them by those Acts.;
(e) "STERLING" and the sign "L" mean pounds sterling in the currency of the United Kingdom and "US DOLLARS" and the sign "$" mean dollars in the currency of the United States;
(f) the table of contents and headings are for convenience only and shall not affect the interpretation of this Agreement;
(g) general words shall not be given a restrictive meaning:
(i) if they are introduced by the word "other" by reason of the fact that they are preceded by words indicating a particular class of act, matter or thing; or
(ii) by reason of the fact that they are followed by particular examples intended to be embraced by those general words;
(h) where any statement is qualified by the expression "SO FAR AS THE WARRANTORS ARE AWARE" or "TO THE BEST OF THE WARRANTORS' KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF" or any similar expression it shall be deemed to include an additional statement that it has been made after due and careful enquiry.
2. CONDITIONS TO COMPLETION
2.1 Except for the obligations set out in this clause, clause 6 (Pre-Completion obligations) and sub-clause 17.10 (Termination), the obligations of the Warrantors under this Agreement are in all respects conditional upon the following:
(a) as at the date of Completion, Activision having performed all obligations and complied with all terms, conditions and covenants on its part agreed to be performed under this Agreement on or prior to the date of the Completion;
(b) the respective representations and warranties of Activision contained in this Agreement remaining true and correct both as of the date of this Agreement and as of the date of Completion with the same effect as though made at such date, except that any representation or warranty which is permitted to be and has been made as of and expressly limited to, a specific date shall have been true and correct on and as of such date;
(c) Activision receiving separately from KPMG Peat Marwick, independent auditors for Activision, and Grant Thornton, independent auditors of the Group, letters dated the date of Completion (which may contain customary qualifications and assumptions) to the effect that KPMG Peat Marwick and Grant Thornton respectively concur with Activision's management's conclusion that no conditions exist relating to Activision, the Company or the transactions contemplated by this Agreement that would preclude Activision from accounting for the share exchange as a pooling of interests for US accounting purposes under United States generally accepted accounting principles ("THE POOLING ARRANGEMENT");
2.2 Except for the obligations set out in this clause, clause 6 (Pre-Completion obligations) and sub-clause 17.10 (Termination), the obligations of Activision under this Agreement are in all respects conditional upon the following:
(a) conditional only upon Completion, the Company having duly passed requisite Board resolutions effecting the approval of all matters contemplated under this Agreement;
(b) the respective representations and warranties of the Warrantors contained in this Agreement remaining true and correct and the information set forth in any Schedule to this Agreement being true and correct both at the date of this Agreement and at the date of Completion with the same effect as though made at such date, except that any representation or warranty or items of information set forth in a Schedule which is permitted to be and has been made as of and expressly limited to, a specific date shall have been true and correct on and as of such date;
(c) as of the date of Completion there being no material adverse change in the condition of the Group or its business (financial or otherwise), results of operations, assets, net worth, prospects, properties or litigation, except that the
termination of any of the contracts between a Group Company and any Contractor by reason solely of the exercise of a right of termination upon a Change of Control shall not be a material adverse change. Also for the purpose of this sub-clause, it shall be deemed not to be a material adverse change in the condition of the Group or its business (financial or otherwise), results of operations, assets, net worth, prospects, properties or litigation if a customer or customers individually or in the aggregate of the Group Companies (other than the Contractors) indicate that they will no longer transact business with the Group as a result of the Change of Control unless such customer or customers individually or in the aggregate have accounted for 7 1/2 % or more of the Group's turnover in the twelve complete calendar months immediately preceding the date of this Agreement in which case there shall be deemed to be a material adverse change;
(d) as of the date of Completion, the Company and the Warrantors having performed all obligations and complied with all terms, conditions and covenants on their part agreed to be performed hereunder on or prior to the date of Completion;
(e) subsequent to the date of this Agreement and prior to Completion, the Company and the Warrantors not having performed any of the acts prohibited by clause 6;
(f) Activision having received a written opinion from Robinson Silverman Pearce Aronsohn & Berman LLP, its counsel, in form and substance reasonably satisfactory to it, to the effect that the share exchange will not result in a tax liability to Activision under the Code and such opinion shall not have been withdrawn; provided, however, that if such counsel does not render such opinion, this condition shall nonetheless be deemed to be satisfied with respect to Activision if the Company's counsel renders such opinion to Activision. Activision, the Company, and the Warrantors agree to make reasonable representations as requested by such counsel for the purpose of rendering such opinion;
(g) Activision receiving separately from KPMG Peat Marwick, independent auditors for Activision, and Grant Thornton, independent auditors of the Group, letters dated the date of Completion (which may contain customary qualifications and assumptions) to the effect that KPMG Peat Marwick and Grant Thornton respectively concur with Activision's management's conclusion that no conditions exist relating to Activision, the Company or the transactions contemplated by this Agreement that would preclude Activision from accounting for the share exchange as a Pooling Arrangement; and
(h) the Bank of Scotland having formally waived any event of default arising under the terms of its facility agreement dated 28 June 1996 by reason of change of control and having provided letters of non crystallisation in relation to Group debentures granted to them.
2.3
(a) The Warrantors shall (so far as it lies within their powers) use all reasonable endeavours to procure that the Conditions referred to in sub-clauses 2.2(a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (g), and (h) are satisfied as soon as possible and in any event not later than 26 November 1997 (or such later date as the parties may agree).
(b) Activision shall (so far as it lies within its powers) use all reasonable endeavours to procure that the Conditions referred to in sub-clause 2.1(a),(b) and (c) and 2.2 (f) are satisfied as soon as possible and in any event not later than 26 November 1997 (or such later date as the parties may agree).
2.4 If any of the Conditions is not satisfied in full by the date specified in
sub-clause 2.3 then (in the case of the Conditions specified in sub-clause
2.1) the Warrantors and (in the case of the Conditions specified in
sub-clauses 2.2) Activision shall be entitled at its (or as the case may
be) their option either (in all cases prior to Completion):
(a) to waive the unsatisfied Condition; or
(b) to extend the period for satisfying the unsatisfied Condition until 1 December 1997; or
(c) to treat this Agreement as terminated:
(i) without prejudice to the fact that in the event of termination by Activision, Activision reserves any rights it may have against the Warrantors for breach if the Warrantors have not complied with their obligations in clause 2.3(a); and
(ii) without prejudice to the fact that in the event of termination by the Warrantors, the Warrantors reserve any rights they may have against Activision for breach if Activision has not complied with its obligations in clause 2.3(b).
PROVIDED THAT the party exercising the rights of termination referred to in clause 2.4 shall have complied with its own respective obligations in clause 2.3(a) or 2.3(b) (as the case may be).
3. TRANSFER AND EXCHANGE
3.1 Subject to the terms of this Agreement, the Shareholders shall transfer to Activision with effect from the date on which this Agreement becomes unconditional, the Company Shares with:
(a) full title guarantee (but free from all claims, charges, liens and encumbrances (whether monetary or not)); and
(b) all rights attaching to or accruing to them on or after the date on which this Agreement becomes unconditional (including all dividends and distributions declared, paid or made after that date save for the Dividends which will be paid by the Company in the ordinary course).
3.2 Subject to the terms of the Agreement, the Share Option shall be terminated pursuant to the Termination Deed.
3.3 Each of the Shareholders waives all rights of pre-emption and redemption over any of the Company Shares conferred on him by the Articles or in any other way and undertakes to take all steps necessary to waive any rights of pre-emption and redemption over any of the Company Shares. Each of the Shareholders also waives any right he may have to receive any 'Approved Offer' as defined in the Articles.
3.4 Activision shall not be obliged to complete the exchange unless the transfer and exchange of all the Company Shares are completed simultaneously.
4. CONSIDERATION
4.1 The Consideration payable to the Shareholders is the issuance by Activision to the Shareholders of the Consideration Stock, credited as fully paid to the Shareholders in the manner and proportions as set out in Schedule 1.
4.2 The Consideration payable to Hunt is the issuance to Hunt by Activision of the Hunt Options.
4.3 The Consideration Stock shall rank in all respects with the common stock par value $0.000001 per share in the capital of Activision ("COMMON STOCK") in issue immediately prior to the allotment and issue of the Consideration Stock.
5. THE STOCK AND OPTION RETENTION
5.1 In order to ensure that the Surviving Shareholders' Warranties made by the
Warrantors under this Agreement (which are surviving Completion) are not
breached, and in order to provide a source of indemnification to Activision
pursuant to any Claims, (a) the Shareholders agree that the certificates
representing 7.5% of the total number of shares of Consideration Stock
issued to the Shareholders pursuant to clause 4 ("THE RETAINED STOCK") and
(b) Hunt agrees that a Hunt Option Agreement with respect to 7.5% of the
total number of the Hunt Options (and the Hunt Options represented thereby)
(the "RETAINED OPTIONS") shall be deposited with the Escrow Agent in an
escrow account ("THE ESCROW ACCOUNT") pursuant to the Escrow Agreement on
the date of Completion to provide a source from which Activision can be
reimbursed for any Claim. Any Option Stock issued upon exercise of
Retained Options shall be treated in the same manner as Retained Stock.
5.2 Such Retained Stock and Retained Options shall be held in the Escrow Account during such period of time as set forth in the Escrow Agreement ("THE HOLD PERIOD"). Any dividends and distributions with respect to such Retained Stock and any Option Stock issued upon the exercise of the Retained Options while held in the Escrow Account shall also be retained in the Escrow Account until the expiration of the Hold Period. Any offsets or deductions made from Retained Stock or Retained Options held in the Escrow Account on account of any breach shall be made on the last business day of the Hold Period, or at such other time as set forth in the Escrow Agreement, and shall be based upon a market price per share of Consideration Stock of $15.5625 and dollar/sterling exchange rate of $1.6918 per L1 . The value of each Retained Option for these purposes shall be $15.5525. All Retained Stock and Retained Options subject to such offset or deduction shall be cancelled by Activision and the remaining Retained Stock and Retained Options together with any dividends paid or distributions made with respect to such Retained Stock and Option Stock issued to Hunt upon the exercise of Retained Options that have not been cancelled shall be then delivered to the Shareholders and Hunt in accordance with their respective interests.
5.3 The cancellation by Activision of any Retained Stock and Retained Options contained in the Escrow Account in respect of any Claim shall not prejudice its right to recover any further sum due to it for that or any other Claim not satisfied by the Escrow Account.
6. PRE-COMPLETION OBLIGATIONS
6.1 The Warrantors shall procure that, between the date of this Agreement and Completion, each Group Company shall carry on its respective businesses in the ordinary course and shall not without the consent of Activision do anything which is not of a routine or unimportant nature or which may jeopardise the Pooling Arrangement. In particular, and without limitation, the Warrantors will procure that the Group will not (save in each case with the prior written consent of Activision):
(a) lend any moneys outside the ordinary course of business;
(b) lend any moneys to any shareholder, director or employee;
(c) borrow any moneys except in relation to the operation of bank overdrafts within existing limits as required in the ordinary course of business;
(d) give or allow to exist any further debenture, mortgage, charge or other encumbrance over any of its assets or undertaking save for a charge over debts owed by CentreSoft Limited to PDQ Distribution Limited to be granted by PDQ Distribution Limited to Eidos plc;
(e) enter into any capital expenditure commitments, hire purchase, leasing, rental or conditional sale agreements or arrangements save for those entered into in the ordinary course of business;
(f) enter into any agreement which is outside the ordinary course of its business or which is onerous or long term;
(g) declare, make or pay any dividend or other distribution or allot, issue, grant any options over, redeem, purchase, consolidate, convert, sub-divide or reduce any share or loan capital or issue any share warranties or securities convertible into shares;
(h) sell, transfer or otherwise dispose of the whole or any part of its business, undertakings or assets otherwise than current assets in the ordinary course of its business or fixed assets not exceeding L25,000 in value in the aggregate;
(i) give any financial or other guarantees, securities or indemnities for any purpose other than in the ordinary course of business save for the guarantee to be granted by CentreSoft Limited. to Eidos plc in respect of the obligations owed by PDQ Distribution Limited to Eidos plc under the Distribution Agreement dated 28 June 1996;
(j) save for routine debt collection matters commence any litigation or compromise or settle any claim, dispute or other matter in which it is involved;
(k) redeem any of the Company Shares or any indebtedness to any Warrantor;
(l) attempt to do any of the matters set out in paragraphs (a) to (k);
6.2 In addition, the Warrantors shall procure that during the period set out in sub-clause 6.1 and save as expressly contemplated by this Agreement:
(a) no additional director is appointed to the Board of any Group Company;
(b) no resolution is passed by the shareholders of any Group Company;
(c) no change in the terms and conditions of employment of any employee of any Group Company is made;
(d) no act is performed or omission allowed, either by themselves or by any Group Company, which would result in any of the Shareholders Warranties being breached or becoming misleading at any time up to and including Completion;
(e) each Group Company maintains valid insurance in respect of its property, assets and business;
(f) each Group Company pays its creditors in the ordinary course of its business or within the normal terms of payment of such creditors.
7. COMPLETION
7.1 Completion shall take place at the offices of Osborne Clarke on 26 November 1997 (or on such other date, time and place as the parties may agree but, in any event, no later than 1 December 1997).
7.2 On Completion:
(a) the Warrantors shall deliver to Activision:
(i) stock transfer forms, duly completed and executed by the registered holders, in favour of Activision (or as it may direct) in respect of the Company Shares together with the relevant share and stock certificates;
(ii) letters of non-crystallisation dated not earlier than the second business day immediately preceding Completion from the holders of all outstanding floating charges given by any Group Company including without limit those given to Bank of Scotland plc;
(iii) A Deed of Release executed by Close Investment Management Limited on behalf of Close Investment 1994 Fund in relation to the security granted to the Investor Shareholder by any Group Company in support of the Loan Stock Deed or any other matter together with the original copies of such security documentation;
(iv) evidence to the satisfaction of Activision that:
(aa) the Termination Deed has been executed by Hunt and the Company;
(bb) the shareholders and subscription agreement dated 28 June 1996 between the Shareholders has been terminated without residual liability of any party to it;
(cc) Bank of Scotland has waived any event of default arising under the terms of its facility agreement dated 28 June 1996 by reason of change of control;
(dd) the Hunt Consultancy Agreement has been terminated by an agreement in the agreed form;
(v) irrevocable powers of attorney in favour of Activision in the agreed form executed by each of the registered holders of the Company Shares or any shares of the Subsidiaries which are not registered in the name of a Group Company to enable Activision (pending registration of transfers of the Shares) to exercise all voting and other rights attaching to the shares and to appoint proxies for this purpose;
(vi) the certificate of incorporation, any certificates of incorporation on change of name or re-registration, the statutory books written up to date, share certificate books, minute books, and the common seal of each Group Company;
(vii) all title deeds relating to the Properties including all documents relating to the Tenancies and, where the Properties are charged, Forms 53 or receipted legal charges as appropriate;
(viii) all other papers and documents relating to each Group Company which are in the possession of or under the control of the Investor Shareholder or Hunt delivered at the Company's premises;
(ix) letters of resignation in the agreed form from Hunt and Neil Murphy as directors of the Company;
(x) letters of resignation from the auditors of each Group Company (save Electric Dreams Limited) containing the statement specified in Section 394(1), Companies Act 1985;
(xi) an investment letter from each Warrantor in the agreed form;
(xii) a certificate in the agreed form dated as of the date of Completion executed by each of the Warrantors certifying that the representations and warranties of the Warrantors set out in this Agreement were true and correct as at the date of the execution of this Agreement and are true and correct on and as of the date at the Completion as if made on and as of such date, and that since the Accounts Date there has been no material adverse change (within the meaning of such phrase contained in sub-clause 2.2(c)) in the financial condition, business or operations of the Company;
(xiii) a copy of the Escrow Agreement duly executed together with stock powers for Retained Stock;
(xiv) copies of the Accounts and the Management Accounts;
(xv) an opinion from the Warrantors' legal counsel in the agreed form relating to, inter alia, the good standing of the Company and other matters reasonably requested by Activision;
(xvi) the Hunt Option Agreements duly executed by Hunt;
(xvii) duly executed Restrictive Covenant Deeds by all Employee Shareholders.
(b) The Shareholders shall repay all moneys (if any) then owing by them to any Group Company whether due and payable or not.
(c) The Employee Shareholders shall enter into the Service Agreements.
(d) The Warrantors shall procure that a board meeting of the Company is held at which it is resolved to approve the stock transfers referred to in Clause 7.2 (a)(i) and (subject to them being stamped) registered in the books of the Company.
(e) The Warrantors shall procure that such further board meetings of each Group Company (save for Electric Dreams Limited) are held at which:
(i) the persons nominated by Activision are appointed as directors of each Group Company;
(ii) the accounting reference date of each Group Company is changed to 31 March;
(iii) Grant Thornton resign from their office as auditors to each Group Company and KPMG Peat Marwick are appointed in their place;
(iv) the execution and completion of the other documents to be entered into by each Group Company under this Agreement is approved; and
(f) The Warrantors shall produce the Accounts certified by Grant Thornton in a form suitable for filing with the SEC on Form 8-K.
(g) When the Warrantors have complied with the provisions of sub-clauses
(a)-(f) inclusive, Activision shall:
(i) subject to (ii) below procure the allotment and issue of the Consideration Stock to the Shareholders in proportions set out in Schedule 1;
(ii) deliver certificates in respect of the Retained Stock to the Escrow Agent to be held in the Escrow Account;
(iii) enter into the Hunt Option Agreements;
(iv) deliver the Hunt Option Agreement representing the Retained Options to the Escrow Agent;
(v) enter into the Escrow Agreement;
(vi) enter into the Restrictive Covenant Deeds; and
(vii) deliver a copy of a resolution adopted by the board of Activision approving the transactions contemplated by this Agreement, certified by the company Secretary.
7.3 If any of the requirements of sub-clause 7.2 are not complied with on the date set for Completion under sub-clause 7.1, Activision (in the case of the requirements of sub-clauses 7.2 (a) - (f) inclusive) or the Warrantors (in the case of the requirements of sub-clause 7.2(g)) may:
(a) defer Completion to a date not later than 1 December 1997 or such later date as the parties may agree (in which case the provisions of this sub-clause shall also apply to Completion as so deferred); or
(b) proceed to Completion so far as practicable but without prejudice to any other rights which it or they may have under this Agreement or any appropriate law; or
(c) treat this Agreement as terminated without prejudice to the fact that the terminating party reserves any rights it or they may have to claim damages against the non-terminating party for breach by such non-terminating party for not complying with its or their respective obligations under sub-clause 7.2.
save that if Activision terminates the Agreement by reason only of the Warrantors failing to comply with clause 7.2(f) Activision shall have no claim for damages against the Warrantors.
8. RESTRICTION ON SALE OF THE CONSIDERATION STOCK AND OPTION STOCK
8.1 The Warrantors acknowledge and agree that the Consideration Stock and the Option Stock will be issued to the Warrantors without registration under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "SECURITIES ACT"), based upon the "private offering exemption", in reliance upon appropriate written representations from the Warrantors (as set forth in their respective Investment Letters in the agreed form), further evidenced by the restrictive wording on the certificates representing Consideration Stock and Option Stock and "stop transfer" instructions to Activision's transfer agent. The Consideration Stock and Option Stock will constitute "restricted securities" within the meaning of the Securities Act and related rules and regulations. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Securities Act, the Warrantors acknowledge and agree that the Warrantors shall not have the right to sell, pledge, gift, hypothecate or otherwise dispose of the Consideration Stock and Option Stock until the issuance by Activision of its first earnings press release containing thirty (30) days of combined operations of Activision and the Group.
8.2 Activision shall upon declaration of effectiveness of the Registration Statement (as defined in sub-clause 9.1(c) of this Agreement) procure that its corporate legal counsel issue an opinion and instructions to Activision's transfer agent to register for transfer, free of restrictive legends, certificates representing the Consideration Stock and Option Stock upon sale or transfer thereof by the Warrantors pursuant to the Registration Statement and compliance by the selling Warrantors with the prospectus delivery requirements of the Securities Act and certification to the transfer agent of such compliance.
9. REGISTRATION OF THE CONSIDERATION STOCK AND OPTION STOCK
9.1 Activision acknowledges that the Warrantors are likely to seek to sell some or all of their Consideration Stock or Option Stock at the earliest time permitted. Activision therefore undertakes to use its best endeavours to file with the SEC:-
(a) notification of the acquisition of the Company on Form 8-K on or before 5 December 1997;
(b) financial statements for Form 8-K (including the Company's audited financial statements for the last fiscal year and the Company's unaudited financial statements for the quarters ended 31 October 1997) prior to 29 December 1997;
(c) a registration statement on Form S-3 ("THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT") or on such other available form which may be mutually acceptable to the parties as soon as reasonably practicable after Completion and in any case prior to the later of (i) 5 January 1998, or (ii) five business days after the filing referred to in 9.1(b) above, registering under the Securities Act, pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act, if available, for the offer and sale in the future of up to all of the Consideration Stock and Option Stock issued by Activision pursuant to this Agreement and the Hunt Option Agreements.
9.2 Activision agrees:-
(a) to use its best endeavours to release its earnings report for the quarter ended 31 December 1997 (provided that the Company closes its books for the quarter ended 31 December 1997 by 10 January 1998) prior to the later of (i )23 January 1998 and (ii) thirteen days after the Company closes its books for the quarter ended 31 December 1997;
(b) to use its commercially reasonable efforts to cause the Registration Statement to be declared effective by the SEC within a time frame which is as soon as practicable in the circumstances;
(c) to maintain the effectiveness of the Registration Statement or successor registration statement filed by Activision for the purpose of registering the Consideration Stock and Option Stock until the Consideration Stock and Option
Stock is eligible to be resold without restrictions on disposition pursuant to the Securities Act and its related rules and regulations;
(d) update the prospectus included in the Registration Statement ("THE PROSPECTUS") from time to time as may be necessary to ensure that the Prospectus does not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the Prospectus not misleading and to ensure that the Prospectus is current and can at all times be used during the 20 trading days following the first day the Warrantors are able to sell the Consideration Stock and Option Stock to the public in the United States pursuant to this Agreement; and
(e) provide such number of copies of the Registration Statement and the Prospectus (as so updated) to the Warrantors as they may reasonably request in order to facilitate the public sale or other disposition of the Consideration Stock and Option Stock covered by such Registration Statement.
9.3 Activision shall bear the costs incurred for its legal counsel, accounting and all other costs and expenses, excluding costs for legal counsel for the Warrantors which may be incurred in connection with the preparation and filing of the Registration Statement pursuant to this clause 9. The Warrantors shall be responsible for all costs associated with selling or disposing of the Consideration Stock and Option Stock (including brokers' commissions and underwriting fees) and all fees and expenses for their counsel, accountants and other advisors.
9.4 The rights in this clause 9 are not assignable to any transferee of Consideration Stock or Option Stock acquired by the Warrantors in connection with this Agreement.
9.5 The Warrantors severally agree that they will provide all required co-operation and furnish all necessary information and enter into such agreements customarily required of selling stockholders in connection with the preparation of the Registration Statement filed under the terms of sub-clause 9.1 and the Warrantors, severally, will represent and warrant the accuracy and completeness of all written information so furnished by them for inclusion in the Registration Statement and will indemnify and hold Activision, and its directors, officers, shareholders, controlling persons (within the meaning of the Securities Act) and underwriters harmless from and against any liability, loss, damage or expense (including costs and attorney's fees), incurred by or sustained by, or asserted against any of them, arising out of or based on any untrue statement (or alleged untrue statement) of a material fact contained in the information provided by the Warrantors or based on any omission (or alleged omission) to state a material fact required to be stated therein or necessary to make the statements therein not misleading.
9.6 Activision will indemnify and hold the Warrantors (and their controlling persons, if any, within the meaning of the Securities Act) harmless from and against any liability, loss, damage or expense (including costs and attorney's fees), incurred or sustained by, or asserted against, any of them ("DAMAGES") arising out of or based on any untrue
statement (or alleged untrue statement) of a material fact in the Registration Statement, or based on any omission (or alleged omission) to state a material fact required to be stated therein or necessary to make the statements therein not misleading, other than in respect of any such Damages arising out of any written information furnished by the Warrantors pursuant to clause 9.5 for inclusion in the Registration Statement.
9.7 In the event it is determined by a Court of competent jurisdiction that Activision has breached Clause 9.1(c) or 9.2(a), the parties agree that the Court may consider (but shall not be bound to consider), in assessing damages, if any, any reduction in market value of the Consideration Stock and Option Stock from the date the Warrantors should have been able to sell the Consideration Stock and Option Stock had Activision not breached such clause or clauses and the date on which the Warrantors were actually able to sell the Consideration Stock and Option Stock. The parties confirm that Activision shall be liable for damages for breach of covenant only if the breach is proved and only to the extent awarded by the Court. The parties also agree that a reduction in market value is appropriately measured by reference to changes in the market price of Activision stock and changes in the $/L exchange rate.
10. RELEASE OF GUARANTEES
The Warrantors shall on Completion procure the release of a Group Company from any Guarantee given by such Group Company in respect of any obligations of any Warrantor or Warrantor Associate and shall indemnify Activision against all liability arising after Completion in respect of it.
11. WARRANTIES
11.1 SHAREHOLDERS' WARRANTIES
(a) The Warrantors severally represent and warrant to Activision that each of the Shareholders Warranties to be given by them respectively is true and accurate in all respects and not misleading at the date of this Agreement and will continue to be true and accurate in all respects and not misleading up to and including Completion.
(b) The Warrantors severally represent and warrant to Activision that each of the Surviving Shareholders Warranties to be given by them is true and accurate in all respects and not misleading at the date of this Agreement and will continue to be true and accurate in all respects and not misleading up to and including Completion.
(c) The Warrantors acknowledge that they give the Shareholders Warranties and Surviving Shareholders' Warranties with the intention of inducing Activision to enter into this Agreement and that Activision does so in reliance upon the Shareholder Warranties.
(d) Each of the Shareholder Warranties and Surviving Shareholders'Warranties is a separate and independent warranty and shall not be limited by reference to any other warranty or anything in this Agreement.
11.2 ACTIVISION WARRANTIES
(a) Activision represents and warrants to the Warrantors that each of the Activision Warranties to be given by it is true and accurate in all respects and not misleading at the date of this Agreement and will continue to be true and accurate in all respects and not misleading up to and including Completion.
(b) Activision acknowledges that it gives the Activision Warranties with the intention of inducing the Warrantors to enter into this Agreement and that the Warrantors do so in reliance on the Activision Warranties.
(c) Each of the Activision Warranties is a separate and independent warranty and shall not be limited by reference to any other Activision Warranty or anything in this Agreement.
12. WARRANTORS' REMEDIES
12.1 Activision undertakes to disclose in writing to the Warrantors anything which is or may constitute a claim by the Warrantors against Activision under the Activision Warranties directly after it comes to the notice of it either before, at the time of, or after Completion.
12.2 If between the date of this Agreement and Completion the Warrantors become aware that there has been a material breach of the Activision Warranties or any other term of the Agreement by Activision, the Warrantors shall be entitled to rescind this Agreement by notice in writing to Activision.
13. ACTIVISION'S REMEDIES
13.1 Each of the Warrantors undertakes to disclose in writing to Activision anything which is or may constitute a Claim or which is or may be inconsistent with the contents of the Disclosure Letter directly after it comes to the notice of any of them either before, at the time of, or after Completion.
13.2 If, between the date of this Agreement and Completion, Activision becomes aware that there has been any material breach of the Shareholders Warranties or any other term of this Agreement Activision shall be entitled to rescind this Agreement by notice in writing to the Warrantors. The rescission of this Agreement by Activision pursuant to Clause 13.2 for breach of any Shareholders' Warranty (other than a Surviving Shareholders' Warranty) shall be Activision's sole and exclusive remedy for any material breach of that Warranty.
13.3 The rights and remedies of Activision in respect of any breach of the Surviving Shareholders Warranties shall not be affected by Completion or by any investigation made, or which could have been made, by it or on its behalf into the affairs of any Group Company save as disclosed in the Disclosure Letter.
13.4 If, in respect of or in connection with any Claim, any amount payable to Activision by the Warrantors is subject to Taxation, the amount to be paid to Activision by the Warrantors shall be such as to ensure that the net amount received by Activision is equal to the full amount which would be payable to Activision had the amount not been subject to Taxation due credit being given to the Warrantors for any associated tax credit.
13.5 If any Claim is made then:
(a) Activision shall make and pursue such Claim against all and not some of the Warrantors; and
(b) no Warrantor shall make any claim against any Group Company or any director or employee of any Group Company on whom he may have relied before agreeing to any terms of this Agreement or authorising any statement in the Disclosure Letter.
This sub-clause shall not preclude any Warrantor from claiming against any other Warrantor under any right of contribution or indemnity to which he may be entitled.
13.6 If the Warrantors commit a breach of any Surviving Shareholders' Warranty and:
(a) the value of any Group Company is less than it would have been at Completion in the absence of the breach; or
(b) the value of the Company's shares or of any Group Company's assets is less than it would have been at Completion in the absence of the breach; or
(c) any Group Company has incurred or will in future incur any liability which it would not have incurred, or which exceeds the liability it would have incurred, had matters been as warranted; or
(d) any Group Company suffers or incurs any loss, costs or expenses (including legal costs) which it would not have suffered/incurred in the absence of a breach of warranty and/or had matters been as warranted;
then, without prejudice to any other rights and remedies to which Activision may be entitled, the Warrantors shall, on demand being made by Activision, pay to Activision by way of damages an amount equal to the said diminution in value or liability or excess liability and the said loss, costs or expenses.
13.7 The Warrantors shall indemnify Activision against all costs (including legal costs on an indemnity basis as defined in Order 62 of the Rules of the Supreme Court), expenses or
other liabilities which Activision may reasonably incur either before or after the commencement of any action in connection with:
(a) the settlement of any Claim;
(b) any legal proceedings in respect of any Claim in which judgement is given for Activision; or
(c) the enforcement of any such settlement or judgement.
13.8 Any amount paid by the Shareholders to Activision in respect of any of the provisions of this Agreement shall be treated by the Warrantors as paid to Activision by way of pro rata reduction in the Consideration.
14. LIMITATIONS ON LIABILITY
14.1 The Warrantors shall not be liable in respect of any Claim under the Surviving Shareholders Warranties to the extent that the matter or matters giving rise to such Claim are fairly disclosed in the Disclosure Letter.
14.2 The aggregate maximum liability of the Warrantors in respect of a Claim or Claims under the Surviving Shareholders Warranties or a claim under Clause 13.1 shall in no event exceed L2,680,000 (inclusive of any liability of the Warrantors to contribute to Activision's costs of pursuing such Claim or Claims or claim under Clause 13.1) and the aggregate maximum liability of each Warrantor in respect of a Claim or Claims or claim under Clause 13.1 shall not exceed his Relevant Percentage (as defined below) of L2,680,000.
14.3 For the purposes of clauses 14.2 the expression "his Relevant Percentage" shall mean in relation to each Warrantor the percentage set against his name in Part III of Schedule 1;
14.4 The Warrantors shall not be liable in respect of any Claim where the amount of such Claim does not exceed L15,000.
14.5 The Warrantors shall not be liable in respect of Claims made by Activision unless and until the aggregate cumulative liability of the Warrantors in respect of such Claims (including for these purposes Claims in respect of which the Warrantors do not have any liability pursuant to the provisions of clause 14.4) exceeds L175,000 in which event the Warrantors shall be liable for the entire amount of such liability excluding for these purposes Claims in respect of which the Warrantors do not have any liability pursuant to the provisions of clause 14.4.
14.6 The Warrantors shall not be liable in respect of any Claim unless it shall have been made before the expiry of one year from Completion.
14.7 No Claim shall be deemed to have been made unless notice of such Claim
was made in writing to the Warrantors specifying in reasonable detail
the event of default to which the Claim relates and the nature of the
breach and the amount claimed (to the extent ascertainable by
Activision).
14.8 Any Claim in respect of which notice shall have been given in accordance
with clause 14.7 shall be deemed to have been irrevocably withdrawn and
lapsed (not having been previously satisfied, settled or withdrawn) if
proceedings in respect of such Claim have not been issued and served on
the Shareholders not later than the expiry of the period of 12 months
after the date of such notice.
14.9 Where Activision and/or any Group Company is or is likely to be entitled
to recover from some other person any sum in respect of any matter
giving rise to a Claim then Activision shall procure that reasonable
steps are taken to enforce such recovery (subject to Clause 15) and if
any sum is so recovered then either the amount payable by the Warrantors
in respect of that Claim shall be reduced by an amount equal to the sum
so recovered (less the reasonable costs and expenses of recovering it)
or (if any amount shall already have been paid by any of the Warrantors
in respect of that Claim) there shall be repaid to the Warrantors an
amount equal to the amount so recovered (less the reasonable costs and
expenses of its recovery) or (if less) the amount of such payment.
14.10 Without prejudice to the generality of clause 14.9 above the provisions
of clause 14.9 shall apply where any Group Company is entitled to
recover from its insurers any sum in respect of any matter giving rise
to a Claim.
14.11 The Shareholders shall have no liability (or such liability shall be
reduced) in respect of any Claim:-
(a) if and to the extent that provision or reserve for or in respect
of the liability or other matter giving rise to such Claim has
been made in the Accounts or in the Management Accounts;
(b) if and to the extent any liability of any Group Company included
in the Accounts has been discharged or satisfied below the amount
attributed to it or included in respect of it in the Accounts or
in the Management Accounts;
(c) if and to the extent any contingency or other matters provided
against it in the Accounts or in the Management Accounts has in
the event been over-provided for less the extent to which any
contingency or other matters have been under-provided for;
(d) if and to the extent such Claim occurs or is increased as a
result of any change in legislation after the date of this
Agreement (or any legislation not in force at the date of this
Agreement) which takes effect retrospectively or the withdrawal
after
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the date of this Agreement of any published concession or
published general practice previously made by the Inland Revenue
or other taxing authority;
(e) if and to the extent that such Claim occurs or is increased as a
result of any increase in the rate of Taxation in force at the
date of this Agreement;
(f) if and to the extent that any Claim occurs as a result of or is
otherwise attributable to Activision or any Group Company
disclaiming any part of the benefit of capital or other
allowances against Taxation claimed or proposed to be claimed on
or before the date of this Agreement;
(g) if and to the extent that such Claim is attributable to any
voluntary act or omission of or transaction or arrangement
carried out by Activision or any Group Company after the
Completion Date otherwise than in the ordinary course of business
which act, omission, transaction or arrangement Activision was
aware from the Disclosure Letter would otherwise give rise to a
Claim;
(h) if and to the extent that such Claim would not have arisen or
would have been reduced or eliminated but for the failure or
omission on the part of Activision or any Group Company to make
any claim, election, surrender or disclaimer or give notice or
consent to any other thing under the provisions of any enactment
or regulation relating to Taxation after Completion the making
giving or doing of which was taken into account in computing the
provision for taxation in the Accounts;
(i) if and to the extent that such Claim relates to a liability for
Taxation which would not have arisen but for any winding up or
cessation after Completion of any trade or business carried on by
any Group Company;
(j) if and to the extent that such Claim would not have arisen but
for a change of accounting policy or practice of any Group
Company after Completion other than to bring such company into
line with UK generally accepted accounting principles;;
(k) if and to the extent that such Claim relates to a liability for
Taxation for which any Group Company is or may become liable
wholly or primarily as a result of transactions in the ordinary
course of business after the Accounts Date;
(l) if and to the extent that such Claim would not have arisen but
for the termination of the Share Option pursuant to this
Agreement or for the payment of L500,000 to EIDOS plc as a result
of the transactions contemplated by this Agreement.
14.12 The amount of any Claim shall take into account the amount of any relief
from Taxation arising by virtue of the loss or damage in respect of
which the Claim was made.
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14.13 Nothing in this clause shall derogate from Activision's obligation to
mitigate any loss which it suffers in consequence of a Claim.
14.14 If in respect of any Claim the liability of the Warrantors is contingent
only, then the Warrantors shall not be under any obligation to make any
payment to Activision until such time as the contingent liability ceases
to be contingent and becomes actual provided that the provisions of
clause 14.8 shall not apply to such claim whilst such liability remains
contingent.
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15. CONDUCT OF CLAIMS
15.1 Activision shall notify the Warrantors as soon as reasonably practicable
in writing of:
(a) any claim made against it or a Group Company by a third party
which may give rise to a Claim; and
(b) any claim which it is aware any Group Company is entitled to
bring against a third party which claim is based on circumstances
which may give rise to a Claim.
each of the above being hereinafter called a "THIRD PARTY CLAIM".
15.2
(a) In respect of a Third Party Claim or Third Party Claims which the
Purchaser, acting reasonably, believes individually or in the
aggregate with all other Third Party Claims may exceed
L2,680,000, the Purchaser shall consult with a representative
appointed by the Investor Shareholder and with Richard Steele
acting together on behalf of the Warrantors in connection with
such Third Party Claim but such consultation shall be
non-binding. Subject to its obligation to consult, Activision
shall have control of the conduct, negotiation, settlement and
litigation of such Third Party Claims.
(b) In connection with a Third Party Claim or Third Party Claims
which Activision, acting reasonably, believes individually or in
the aggregate with all other Third Party Claims may be for less
than L2,680,000 Activision shall procure that the conduct,
negotiation, settlement or litigation of the claim by or against
such third party is, so far as is reasonably practicable, carried
out in accordance with the wishes of a representative appointed
by the Investor Shareholder and of Richard Steele acting together
on behalf of the Warrantors and at their cost subject to their
giving timely instructions to Activision and providing reasonable
security for any costs and expenses which might be incurred by
Activision or a Group Company.
15.3 Activision shall not be liable for any delay in giving any notice under
sub-clause 15.1 unless the Warrantors have been materially prejudiced by
such delay, in which case in assessing damages in respect of any Claim
credit shall be given to the Warrantors in
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respect of any damages which would not have arisen pursuant to such
Claim but for such delay.
15.4 Activision shall provide and shall procure that each Group Company
provides to the Warrantors and the Warrantors professional advisers
reasonable access to premises and personnel and to any relevant assets,
documents and records within their power, possession or control for the
purpose of investigating any Claim and enabling the Warrantors to take
the action referred to in sub-clause 15.2 and shall allow the Warrantors
and their advisers to take copies of any relevant documents or records
at their expense.
16. [INTENTIONALLY DELETED]
17. GENERAL
17.1 ENTIRE AGREEMENT AND CONFLICTS
This Agreement sets out the entire agreement and understanding between
the parties in respect of the subject matter of this Agreement.
17.2 ASSIGNMENT
(a) This Agreement shall be binding upon and enure for the benefit of
the successors in title of the parties but, except as set out in
sub-clause (b), shall not be assignable by any party without the
prior written consent of the other.
(b) Activision may assign the benefit of this Agreement (including,
without limitation, the Warranties) to any subsidiary of
Activision.
17.3 VARIATION
No purported variation of this Agreement shall be effective unless it is
in writing and signed by or on behalf of each of the parties.
17.4 EFFECT OF COMPLETION
Except to the extent already performed, all the provisions of this
Agreement shall, so far as they are capable of being performed or
observed, continue in full force and effect notwithstanding Completion.
17.5 INVALIDITY
To the extent that any provision of this Agreement is found by any court
or competent authority to be invalid, unlawful or unenforceable in any
jurisdiction, that provision shall be deemed not to be a part of this
Agreement, it shall not affect the enforceability of the
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remainder of this Agreement nor shall it affect the validity, lawfulness
or enforceability of that provision in any other jurisdiction.
17.6 RELEASES AND WAIVERS
(a) The rights, powers and remedies conferred on Activision by this
Agreement and remedies available to it are cumulative and are
additional to any right, power or remedy which it may have under
general law or otherwise.
(b) Activision may, in whole or in part, release, compound,
compromise, waive or postpone, in its absolute discretion, any
liability owed to it or right granted to it in this Agreement by
any other party or parties without in any way prejudicing or
affecting its rights in respect of that or any other liability or
right not so released, compounded, compromised, waived or
postponed.
(c) No single or partial exercise, or failure or delay in exercising
any right, power or remedy by Activision shall constitute a
waiver by it of, or impair or preclude any further exercise of,
that or any right, power or remedy arising under this Agreement
or otherwise.
17.7 FURTHER ASSURANCE
After Completion, each party shall execute such documents and take such
steps as the other party may reasonably require to fulfil the provisions
of and to give to each party the full benefit of this Agreement.
17.8 COUNTERPARTS
(a) This Agreement may be executed in any number of counterparts and
by the parties on separate counterparts, but shall not be
effective until each party has executed at least one counterpart.
(b) Each counterpart, when executed, shall be an original of this
Agreement and all counterparts shall together constitute one
instrument.
17.9 RESTRICTIVE TRADE PRACTICES ACTS 1976 AND 1977
No provision of this Agreement, or of any agreement or arrangement of
which it forms part, which is subject to registration under the
Restrictive Trade Practices Acts 1976 and 1977 shall take effect until
the day after the date on which particulars of this Agreement, and/or
any agreement or arrangement of which it forms part, have been supplied
to the Director-General of Fair Trading in accordance with those Acts
and the parties agree to use their respective reasonable endeavours to
furnish such particulars by the first business day following Completion
of this Agreement.
17.10 TERMINATION
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Without prejudice to any remedy available to any party arising out of
any outstanding breach of this Agreement on the part of any other party
(including for the avoidance of doubt and without limitation the rights
contained in sub-clauses 2.4 and 7.3(c)), if this Agreement is
terminated in accordance with its terms by reason of a breach by one of
the parties of clause 2.3, the following shall occur:
(a) (if the Agreement is properly terminated by Activision) the
Warrantors shall indemnify Activision for all costs, charges and
expenses incurred by it in connection with the negotiation,
preparations and determination or rescission of this Agreement
and all matters which this Agreement contemplates and (except as
referred to in sub-clause (b)) all obligations of Activision
under this Agreement shall cease and (if the Agreement is
properly terminated by the Warrantors) Activision shall indemnify
the Warrantors for all costs, charges and expenses incurred by
them in connection with the negotiation, preparations and
determination or rescission of this Agreement and all matters
which this Agreement contemplates and (except as referred to in
sub-clause (b)) all obligations of the Shareholders under this
Agreement shall cease;
(b) the provisions contained in clauses 1, 2, 7, 17.10, 17.11, 17.12,
18, 19, 20 and 21 shall continue to apply.
17.11 CONFIDENTIALITY
(a) Except as referred to in sub-clause (b), each party shall treat
as strictly confidential all information received or obtained as
a result of entering into or performing this Agreement which
relates to the provisions or subject matter of this Agreement, to
any other party or the negotiations relating to this Agreement.
(b) Any party may disclose information which would otherwise be
confidential if and to the extent:
(i) it is required to do so by law or any securities exchange
or regulatory or governmental body to which it is subject
wherever situated;
(ii) it considers it necessary to disclose the information to
its professional advisers, auditors and bankers provided
that it does so on a confidential basis;
(iii) the information has come into the public domain through
no fault of that party; or
(iv) each party to whom it relates has given its consent in
writing.
17.12 DEFAULT INTEREST
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If any party defaults in the payment when due of any sum payable under
this Agreement (whether payable by agreement or by an order of a court
or otherwise), the liability of that party shall be increased to include
interest on that sum from the date when such payment was due until the
date of actual payment at a rate per annum of 4 per cent. above the base
rate from time to time of National Westminster Bank Plc. Such interest
shall accrue from day to day and shall be compounded annually.
18. ANNOUNCEMENTS
18.1 Except as referred to in sub-clauses 18.2 and 18.3, no announcement
concerning the terms of this Agreement shall be made by or on behalf of
any of the parties without the prior written consent of a representative
of the Investor Shareholder and Richard Steele, acting together on
behalf of the Warrantors, and Activision, such consent not to be
unreasonably withheld or delayed.
18.2 Any announcement or circular required to be made or issued by any party
by law or under the regulations of the SEC may be made or issued by that
party without consent if it has first sought consent and given the other
parties a reasonable opportunity to comment on the subject matter and
form of the announcement or circular (given the time scale within which
it is required to be released or despatched).
18.3 The parties acknowledge and consent to Activision issuing a press
release in a form reasonably approved by the Shareholders in relation to
the transaction contemplated by this Agreement promptly after the
execution of this Agreement.
19. COSTS AND EXPENSES
19.1 Except as set out in sub-clause 19.2 and sub-clause 17.10 (Termination)
each party shall bear its own costs and expenses incurred in the
preparation, execution and implementation of this Agreement provided
that Activision shall pay the costs of the Warrantors' legal and
accountancy advisors up to a maximum of L197,796.
19.2 Activision shall pay all UK stamp duty applicable to any document to
which it is a party executed pursuant to this Agreement.
20. NOTICES
20.1 Any notice to a party under this Agreement shall be in writing signed by
or on behalf of the party giving it and shall, unless delivered to a
party personally, be left at, or sent by prepaid first class post (by
airmail if outside the UK), prepaid recorded delivery or facsimile to
the address of the parties as set out on page 1 of this Agreement in the
case of Activision, in Schedule 1, in the case of the Warrantors to
their home addresses set out in Schedule 1. A party may notify the
other parties of change of address of such party for the purposes of
this clause, in which case such revised address shall thereafter be the
address for notice of such party.
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20.2 Except as referred to in sub-clauses 20.3 and 20.4, a notice shall be
(a) at the time of delivery if delivered personally;
(i) 48 hours after posting in the case of an address in the United Kingdom and 120 hours after posting for any other address;
(ii) 2 hours after transmission if served by facsimile on a
business day prior to 3pm in the recipient country or in
any other case at 10 am in the recipient country on the
business day after the date of despatch.
20.3 If the deemed time of service is not during normal business hours in the
country of receipt, the notice shall be deemed served at or, in the case
of faxes two hours after the opening of business on the next business
day of that country.
20.4 The deemed service provisions set out in sub-clause 20.2 do not apply
to:
(a) a notice served by post, if there is a national or local
suspension, curtailment or disruption of postal services which
affects the collection of the notice or is such that the notice
cannot reasonably be expected to be delivered within 48 hours or
120 hours (as appropriate) after posting; and
(b) a notice served by facsimile, if, before the time at which the
notice would otherwise be deemed to have been served, the
receiving party informs the sending party that the notice has
been received in a form which is unclear in any material respect,
and, if it informs the sending party by telephone, it also
despatches a confirmatory facsimile within two hours.
20.5 In proving service it will be sufficient to prove:
(a) in the case of personal service, that it was handed to the party
or delivered to or left in an appropriate place for receipt of
letters at its address;
(b) in the case of a letter sent by post, that the letter was
properly addressed, stamped and posted;
(c) in the case of facsimile, that it was properly addressed and
despatched to the number of the party.
20.6 A party shall not attempt to prevent or delay the service on it of a
notice connected with this Agreement.
21. Governing law and jurisdiction
21.1 This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with
English law.
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21.2 Each of the parties irrevocably submits for all purposes in connection
with this Agreement to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of
England.
THIS AGREEMENT has been signed on the date appearing at the head of page 1.
The allocation of the Consideration Stock and Hunt Options among the Warrantors pursuant to clause 4.1 of this Agreement shall be made in the following manner:
1. ALLOCATION OF CONSIDERATION STOCK ON ACCOUNT OF LOAN STOCK
217,405 shares of Consideration Stock shall be issued to the Investor Shareholder in consideration of the Loan Stock.
2. ALLOCATION OF CONSIDERATION STOCK ON ACCOUNT OF REDEEMABLE PREFERENCE SHARES
86,962 shares of Consideration Stock shall be issued to the Investor Shareholder in consideration of the Redeemable Preference Shares.
3. ALLOCATION OF CONSIDERATION STOCK ON ACCOUNT OF CONVERTIBLE PREFERENCE SHARES
14,494 shares of Consideration Stock shall be issued to the Investor Shareholder in consideration of the Convertible Preference Shares.
4. ALLOCATION OF CONSIDERATION STOCK ON ACCOUNT OF REDEEMABLE "B" ORDINARY SHARES (REQUIRED TO BE REDEEMED)
1,976 of Consideration Stock shall be issued to the Investor Shareholder in consideration of the 18,182 of "B" Ordinary Shares required to be redeemed in accordance with Article 3(c)(ii) of the Articles
5. ALLOCATION OF CONSIDERATION STOCK ON ACCOUNT OF ORDINARY SHARES, "A" ORDINARY SHARES AND "B" ORDINARY SHARES (NOT REQUIRED TO BE REDEEMED)
Consideration Stock shall be issued as follows on account of the Company shares:
NAME COMPANY SHARES CONSIDERATION STOCK
Investor Shareholder 1,426 "B" Ordinary 805,293
- and -
41
47,059 "A" Ordinary
Andrew Richard Waterhouse 24,000 Ordinary 398,619
David Neal 10,000 Ordinary 166,091
Gary Christopher Hawkins 6,000 Ordinary 99,655
Norman Cecil Brown 24,000 Ordinary 398,619
Richard Andrew Steele 24,000 Ordinary 398,619
Roger Graham Swindells 6,000 Ordinary 99,655
Steven Graham Varnish 6,000 Ordinary 99,655
6. TREATMENT OF SHARE OPTION
Activision shall issue to Hunt under the Hunt Options options to purchase an aggregate of 50,325 shares of Consideration Stock.
A. THE INVESTOR SHAREHOLDER
NAME ADDRESS NO. OF COMPANY AMOUNT OF
SHARES AT CONSIDERATION
EXCHANGE AND STOCK
COMPLETION
Close Securities 36 Great St. Helen's, 47,059 'A' 1,126,130
Limited London EC3A 6AP Ordinary
Shares
133,333
Convertible
Preference
Shares
800,000
Redeemable
Preference
Shares
L2,000,000
Loan Stock
19,608 "B"
Ordinary
Shares
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Andrew Richard 9 Spring Lane, Hoddey 24,000 398,619
Waterhouse Heath, Solihull B94 Ordinary
6QX Shares
43
David Neal 1 Teasal Close, 10,000 166,091
Boughton Vale, Rugby Ordinary
CV23 0TS Shares
Gary Christoper 5 The Sycamores, Vesey 6,000 99,655
Hawkins Close, Walsall Road, Ordinary
Sutton Coldfield B74 Shares
4QL
Norman Cecil Brown 21 Amington Close, 24,000 398,619
Four Oaks, Sutton Ordinary
Coldfield B75 5UB Shares
Richard Andrew Steele 213 Station Road, 24,000 398,619
Knowle, Solihill B93 Ordinary
0PU Shares
Roger Graham Swindells Amberley, Back Lane, 6,000 99,655
Shustoke, Near Ordinary
Coleshill, West Shares
Midlands B46 2AW
Steven Graham Varnish Squires House, 6,000 99,655
Valley Lane, Ordinary
Bitteswell, Shares
Leicestershire LE17
4SW
C. Hunt
Simon Anthony Hunt 3 Arthur Road,
Edgbaston, Birmingham,
B15 2UW
NAME RELEVANT PERCENTAGE Investor Shareholder 39.69% Andrew Richard Waterhouse 14.049% David Neal 5.854% Gary Christopher Hawkins 3.512% Norman Cecil Brown 14.049% Richard Andrew Steele 14.049% Roger Graham Swidells 3.512% Steven Graham Varnish 3.512% Simon Anthony Hunt 1.773% TOTAL 100% |
REGISTERED NUMBER 3136477
DATE OF INCORPORATION 11 December 1995
ADDRESS OF REGISTERED OFFICE Unit 4/5 Holford Way Holford
Birmingham B6 7AX
CLASS OF COMPANY Private limited
AUTHORISED SHARE CAPITAL L215,029.97 divided into:
100,000 ordinary shares of 1p each
47,059 "A" ordinary shares of 1p
each
19,608 "B" ordinary shares of 1p
each
133,333 convertible preference
shares of L1 each
800,000 redeemable preference
shares of 10p each
ISSUED SHARE CAPITAL
100,000 ordinary shares of 1p each
47,059 "A" ordinary shares of 1p
each
133,333 convertible preference
shares of L1 each
800,000 redeemable preference
shares of 10p each
19,608 "B" ordinary shares of 1p
each
46
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LOAN CAPITAL L2,000,000 15% secured
subordinated loan stock
|
DIRECTORS
FULL NAME USUAL RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS NATIONALITY
Norman Cecil Brown See Schedule 1 British
Simon Anthony Hunt See Schedule 1 British
Neil John Murphy 45 Northolme Road, London, British
N5 2UX
Richard Andrew Steele See Schedule 1 British
Andrew Richard Waterhouse See Schedule 1 British
SECRETARY
FULL NAME USUAL RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Ian Leslie Zant-Boer Farm Manager's Cottage, Grange Farm, Preston
Deanery, Northampton NN7 2DT
ACCOUNTING REFERENCE DATE 30 April
TAX RESIDENCE UK
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SCHEDULE 3
(Information concerning the Subsidiaries)
CENTRESOFT LIMITED
REGISTERED NUMBER 1673860
DATE OF INCORPORATION 26 October 1982
ADDRESS OF REGISTERED OFFICE As the Company
CLASS OF COMPANY Private limited
AUTHORISED SHARE CAPITAL L50,000 divided into:
50,000 ordinary shares of L1 each
ISSUED SHARE CAPITAL L17,862 divided into:
17,862 ordinary shares of L1 each
LOAN CAPITAL None
MEMBERS
FULL NAME REGISTERED ADDRESS NUMBER OF SHARES HELD
Combined See Schedule 2 17,861
Distribution
Holdings Limited
DIRECTORS
FULL NAME USUAL RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS NATIONALITY
Norman Cecil Brown See Schedule 1 British
David Neal See Schedule 1 British
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Richard Andrew Steele See Schedule 1 British
Roger Graham Swindells See Schedule 1 British
Steven Graham Varnish See Schedule 1 British
Andrew Richard See Schedule 1 British
Waterhouse
SECRETARY
FULL NAME USUAL RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Norman Cecil Brown See Schedule 1
TAX RESIDENCE UK
PDQ DISTRIBUTION LIMITED
REGISTERED NUMBER 2105582
DATE OF INCORPORATION 3 March 1987
ADDRESS OF REGISTERED OFFICE As the Company
CLASS OF COMPANY Private Limited
AUTHORISED SHARE CAPITAL L100 divided into:
100 ordinary shares of L1 each
ISSUED SHARE CAPITAL L100 divided into:
100 ordinary shares of L1 each
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LOAN CAPITAL None |
MEMBERS
FULL NAME REGISTERED ADDRESS NUMBER OF SHARES
HELD
Centresoft Limited As the Company 100
DIRECTORS
FULL NAME USUAL RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS NATIONALITY
Norman Cecil Brown As Schedule 1 British
Gary Christopher Hawkins As Schedule 1 British
Richard Andrew Steele As Schedule 1 British
Steven Graham Varnish As Schedule 1 British
Andrew Richard Waterhouse As Schedule 1 British
SECRETARY
FULL NAME USUAL RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Norman Cecil Brown As Schedule 1
ACCOUNTING REFERENCE DATE 30 April
TAX RESIDENCE UK
ELECTRIC DREAMS LIMITED
REGISTERED NUMBER 1903909
DATE OF INCORPORATION 10 April 1985
52
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ADDRESS OF REGISTERED OFFICE As the Company
CLASS OF COMPANY Private Limited
AUTHORISED SHARE CAPITAL L100 divided into:
100 ordinary shares of L1 each
ISSUED SHARE CAPITAL L100 divided into:
100 ordinary shares of L1 each
LOAN CAPITAL None
MEMBERS
FULL NAME REGISTERED ADDRESS NUMBER OF SHARES
HELD
Centresoft Limited As the Company 100
DIRECTORS
FULL NAME USUAL RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS NATIONALITY
Norman Cecil Brown As Schedule 1 British
Richard Andrew Steele As Schedule 1 British
Andrew Richard Waterhouse As Schedule 1 British
SECRETARY
FULL NAME USUAL RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
Norman Cecil Brown As Schedule 1
ACCOUNTING REFERENCE DATE 30 April
TAX RESIDENCE UK
53
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Schedule 4
(Warranties)
PART I
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IN THIS SCHEDULE, WHERE THE CONTEXT PERMITS, THE EXPRESSION "THE COMPANY" MEANS EACH GROUP COMPANY.
THE WARRANTORS
1. CAPACITY
1.1 Each Warrantor has the requisite power and authority to enter into and perform this Agreement and the execution of this Agreement by each Warrantor shall not breach any applicable laws or any contracts or arrangements to which they are a party.
1.2 No Warrantor is bankrupt, has proposed a voluntary arrangement or has made or proposed any arrangement or composition with his creditors or any class of his creditors.
1.3 This Agreement constitutes and imposes valid legal and binding obligations on each Warrantor fully enforceable in accordance with its terms.
2. OWNERSHIP OF SHARES
Each Warrantor owns the Company Shares as set out in Part II of Schedule 1 with full title guarantee free from all charges and other encumbrances (whether monetary or not).
3. ARRANGEMENTS BETWEEN GROUP COMPANIES AND WARRANTOR ASSOCIATES
There are no contracts, arrangements or liabilities, actual or contingent, outstanding or remaining in whole or in part to be performed between any Group Company and any Warrantor Associate.
SHARE CAPITAL
4. COMPANY
4.1 The Company Shares constitute the entire issued and allotted share capital of the Company and are fully paid or credited as fully paid.
4.2 Apart from this Agreement, there is no agreement, arrangement or commitment outstanding which calls for the allotment, issue or transfer of, or accords to any person the right to call for the allotment, issue or transfer of, any share or loan capital of the Company.
4.3 None of the Company Shares was, or represents assets which were, the subject of a transfer at an undervalue, within the meaning of Sections 238 or 339, Insolvency Act 1986, within the past 5 years.
4.4 The Company has not at any time:
(a) reduced its share capital;
(b) redeemed any share capital;
(c) purchased any of its shares; or
(d) forfeited any of its shares.
5. SUBSIDIARIES
5.1 Schedule 3 lists all the Subsidiaries of the Company and the holders of the entire issued and allotted share capital of the Subsidiaries.
5.2 The Company does not have, and has never had, a participating interest (as defined in Section 260, Companies Act 1985) in any undertaking which is not a Subsidiary nor has it agreed to acquire such an interest.
5.3 No Group Company holds or is liable on any share or relevant security which is not fully paid up or which carries any liability.
5.4 Apart from this Agreement, there is no agreement, arrangement or commitment outstanding which calls for the allotment, issue or transfer of, or accords to any person the right to call for the allotment, issue or transfer of, any share or loan capital of any Subsidiary.
5.5 None of the shares in the capital of any Subsidiary was, or represents assets which were, the subject of a transfer at an undervalue, within the meaning of Sections 238 or 339, Insolvency Act 1986, within the past 5 years.
CORPORATE MATTERS
6. INSOLVENCY OF THE GROUP
6.1 No order has been made, no resolution has been passed, no petition presented, no meeting convened for the winding up of any Group Company or for a provisional liquidator to be appointed in respect of any Group Company and no Group Company has been a party to any transaction which could be avoided in a winding up.
6.2 No administration order has been made and no petition for one has been presented in respect of any Group Company.
6.3 No receiver or administrative receiver has been appointed in respect of any Group Company or any of its assets.
6.4 No Group Company is insolvent, has failed or is unable to pay, or has no reasonable prospect of being able to pay, any of its debts as they fall due, as those expressions are defined in Section 268, Insolvency Act 1986.
6.5 No voluntary arrangement has been proposed under Section 1, Insolvency Act 1986 in respect of any Group Company and no Group Company has made or proposed any arrangement or composition with its creditors or any class of them.
6.6 No distress, execution or other process has been levied on any Group Company's assets or action taken to repossess goods in the possession of any Group Company.
6.7 No unsatisfied judgement is outstanding against any Group Company and no demand has been served on any Group Company under Section 123(1)(a), Insolvency Act 1986.
6.8 No event analogous to any referred to in sub-paragraphs 6.1 to 6.7 has occurred anywhere in the world.
7. STATUTORY BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS FILED
7.1 The statutory books, including all registers and minute books, of each Group Company have been properly kept and contain an accurate and complete record of the matters with which those books should deal.
7.2 All documents which should have been delivered by any Group Company to the Registrar of Companies are complete and accurate and have been properly so delivered.
7.3 The copy of the memorandum and articles of association of each Group Company contained in the Disclosure Letter has embodied in it or annexed to it a copy of each
resolution as referred to in Section 380, Companies Act 1985, and is accurate and complete in all respects.
7.4 Since the Accounts Date the members of any Group Company in general meeting, or of any class of them, have not passed any resolution other than resolutions relating to the ordinary business of annual general meetings.
INFORMATION
8. ACCURACY AND ADEQUACY OF INFORMATION
8.1 The information contained in Schedules 1 to 3 (except Part 1 of Schedule 1) to this Agreement is accurate and complete.
8.2 The information contained in the Disclosure Letter and all written information supplied to Activision or its advisers by or on behalf of the Warrantors or any of their advisers or by any Group Company is complete and accurate and is not misleading because of any omission or ambiguity or for any other reason and where the information is expressed as an opinion, it is truly and honestly held and not given casually, recklessly or without due regard for its accuracy.
8.3 There is no fact or circumstance relating to the business and affairs of any Group Company which, if disclosed to Activision or any of its advisers, might reasonably be expected to influence the decision of Activision to purchase the Company Shares on the terms contained in this Agreement and which has not been so disclosed.
ACCOUNTS
9. PREPARATION AND CONTENTS OF THE ACCOUNTS
9.1 The Accounts were prepared in accordance with the requirements of all relevant statutes and generally accepted United Kingdom accounting practices including, without limitation, all applicable Financial Reporting Standards issued by the Accounting Standards Board, Statements of Standard Accounting Practice issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and Statements from the Urgent Issues Task Force current at the Accounts Date and, where the accounting practice used to prepare the Accounts differs from those applicable in previous financial periods, the effect of any such difference is disclosed in the Disclosure Letter.
9.2 Without prejudice to the generality of sub-paragraph 9.1:
(a) the Accounts:
(i) give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of each Group Company at the Accounts Date and the profits or losses of each Group Company for the financial period ending on that date;
(ii) contain full provision or reserve for all liabilities and for all capital and revenue commitments of each Group Company as at the Accounts Date;
(iii) disclose all the assets of each Group Company as at the Accounts Date and none of the values placed in the Accounts on any of those assets was in excess of its market value at the Accounts Date;
(iv) make full provision for bad and doubtful debts;
(v) do not include any figure which is referable to the value of an intangible asset; and
(vi) make full provision for depreciation of the fixed assets of each Group Company having regard to their original cost and life.
(b) in the Accounts:
(i) in valuing work-in-progress no value was attributed in respect of eventual profits and adequate provision was made for such losses as were at the time of signature of the Accounts by directors of each Group Company reasonably foreseeable as arising or likely to arise; and
(ii) slow-moving stock was written down appropriately, redundant, obsolete, obsolescent or defective stock was wholly written off and the value attributed to any other stock did not exceed the lower of cost (on a first in first out basis) and net realisable value (or replacement value) at the Accounts Date.
9.3 The profits and losses of each Group Company shown in the Accounts were not, save as disclosed in the Accounts or in any note accompanying them, to any material extent affected by any extraordinary, exceptional, unusual or non-recurring income, capital gain or expenditure or by any other factor known to the Warrantors rendering any such profit or loss for such period exceptionally high or low.
9.4 The audited profit and loss accounts and audited balance sheets of each Group Company contained in the Accounts were prepared on a consistent basis with each other.
9.5 The Accounts and the Management Accounts contain and reflect adequate reserves for all liabilities or obligations of the Group of any nature, whether absolute, contingent or otherwise, and for all reasonably anticipated losses and costs in excess of expected receipts, on a basis consistent with past practice and experience. The Group does not now nor will it prior to the date of Completion, have any liabilities or obligations not fully and properly reflected or reserved against in the Accounts and the Management Accounts except liabilities and obligations incurred by the Group in the ordinary course
of business since the Management Accounts Date, none of which is individually or in the aggregate material in amount.
9.6 Neither the Company nor any of its Subsidiaries is directly or indirectly liable upon or with respect to (by discount, repurchase agreement or otherwise), or obligated in any way to provide funds in respect of or to guarantee or assume any debt, obligation or dividend of any company, association, partnership, individual or other entity other than the Company (and its Subsidiaries).
10. ACCOUNTING RECORDS
10.1 The accounting records of each Group Company comply with the
requirements of Sections 221 and 222, Companies Act 1985, do not
contain or reflect any material inaccuracy or discrepancy and present
and reflect in accordance with generally accepted accounting
principles and standards the financial position of and all
transactions entered into by the relevant Group Company or to which it
has been a party.
10.2 All relevant financial books and records of each Group Company are in
its possession or otherwise under its direct control.
10.3 Where any of the records of any Group Company are kept on computer,
that Group Company:
(a) is the owner of all hardware and all software necessary to enable
it to use the records as they have been used in its business to
the date of this Agreement and to Completion;
(b) does not share any hardware or software relating to the records
with any person; and
(c) maintains adequate back up records and support in the event of
any fault or failure of such computer hardware and software.
11. MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS
The Management Accounts have been carefully prepared on a basis consistent with the Accounts, fairly reflect the trading position of each Group Company as at their date and for the period to which they relate and are not affected by any extraordinary, exceptional, unusual or non-recurring income, capital gain or expenditure or by any other factor known by the Warrantors rendering profits or losses for the period covered exceptionally high or low.
12. EVENTS SINCE THE ACCOUNTS DATE
12.1 Since the Accounts Date there has been no material change in:
(a) the financial or trading position or prospects of any Group
Company;
(b) the value or state of assets or amount or nature of liabilities
as compared with the position disclosed in the Accounts; or
(c) in the turnover, direct or indirect expenses or the margin of
profitability of any Group Company as compared with the position
disclosed for the equivalent period of the last financial year.
12.2 Each Group Company has since the Accounts Date carried on its business
in the ordinary course and without interruption, so as to maintain it
as a going concern and paid its creditors in the ordinary course and
within the credit periods agreed with such creditors.
12.3 Since the Accounts Date no supplier of any Group Company has ceased or
restricted supplies or threatened so to do, there has been no loss or
material curtailment of the business transacted by any Group Company
with any customer which at any time in the preceding financial year
represented 5 per cent or more of the turnover of that Group Company
and the Warrantors are not aware of any circumstances likely to give
rise to any of the above.
12.4 Since the Accounts Date no Group Company has:
(a) incurred or committed to incur:
(i) material (and for the purposes of this sub-clause material
shall mean a sum in excess of L20,000) capital expenditure;
or
(ii) any liability whether actual or contingent except for full
value or in the ordinary course of business;
(b) acquired or agreed to acquire:
(i) any asset for a consideration higher than its market value
at the time of acquisition or otherwise than in the ordinary
course of business; or
(ii) any business or substantial part of it or any share or
shares in a body corporate;
(c) disposed of or agreed to dispose of, any of the assets of any
Group Company, except in the ordinary course of business and for
full value;
(d) repaid wholly or in part any loan except upon the due date or
dates for repayment;
60
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(e) issued or allotted share or loan capital, increased its
authorised share capital, purchased or redeemed any shares,
reduced or re-organised its share capital or agreed to do so; or
(f) declared or paid any distribution of profit.
12.5 None of the debts included in the Accounts or any of the debts
subsequently arising have been the subject of factoring by any Group
Company and the Warrantors are not aware of any circumstances which
could result in any presently outstanding debt in excess of L1,000 not
being paid in full.
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13. FINANCIAL COMMITMENTS AND BORROWINGS
13.1 Complete and accurate details of all overdraft, loan and other
financial facilities available to the Group Companies and the amounts
outstanding under them at the close of business on the day preceding
the date of this Agreement are set out in the Disclosure Letter and
none of the Warrantors or any Group Company has done anything, or
omitted to do anything, as a result of which the continuance of any of
those facilities might be affected or prejudiced.
13.2 No Group Company is a party to, or has agreed to enter into, any
lending, or purported lending, agreement or arrangement (other than
agreements to give credit in the ordinary course of its business).
13.3 No Group Company is exceeding any borrowing limit imposed upon it by
its bankers, other lenders, its articles of association or otherwise
nor has any Group Company entered into any commitment or arrangement
which might lead it so to do.
13.4 No overdraft or other financial facilities available to any Group
Company are dependent upon the guarantee of or security provided by
any other person.
13.5 No event has occurred or been alleged which is or, with the passing of
any time or the giving of any notice, certificate, declaration or
demand, would become an event of default under, or breach of, any of
the terms of any loan capital, borrowing, debenture or financial
facility of any Group Company or which would entitle any person to
call for repayment prior to normal maturity.
13.6 No Group Company is, or has agreed to become, bound by any guarantee,
indemnity, surety or similar commitment.
13.7 No Group Company has any credit cards in issue in its own name or that
of any officer or employee of any Group Company or any person
connected with any officer or employee.
61
13.8 No Group Company has received any grants, allowances, loans or
financial aid of any kind from any government departmental or other
board, body, agency or authority which may become liable to be
refunded or repaid in whole or in part.
13.9 No Group Company has engaged in financing of a type which is not
required, or has not been, shown or reflected in the Accounts.
14. WORKING CAPITAL
Having regard to existing bank and other facilities available to it, each Group Company has sufficient working capital for the purposes of continuing to carry on its business, in its present form and at its present level of turnover, for the period of 12 months after Completion.
15. INSURANCES
15.1 Each Group Company maintains, and at all material times has
maintained, adequate insurance cover against all risks normally
insured against by companies carrying on a similar business, for the
full replacement or reinstatement value of its business and assets,
and in particular has maintained product liability, professional
indemnity insurance and all insurance required by statute and insured
against loss of profits for a period of not less than 6 months and
full details of the insurance policies are set out in the Disclosure
Letter.
15.2 The Policies are valid and enforceable and all premiums due have been
paid. There are no outstanding claims or circumstances likely to give
rise to a claim under the Policies or which would be required to be
notified to the insurers and nothing has been done or omitted to be
done which has made or could make any Policy void or voidable or as a
result of which the renewal of any Policy might be refused or the
premiums due in respect of them may be liable to be increased.
15.3 There are no claims outstanding or threatened, or so far as the
Warrantors are aware, pending, against any Group Company which are not
fully covered by insurance.
16. CONTRACTS AND COMMITMENTS
16.1 Complete and accurate details of the contracts of the Company
(including the Contracts) are set out in the Disclosure Letter (save
where any contract has an annual turnover or expenditure less than
L300,000 for the previous financial year of the Group).
16.2 No Group Company is a party to any agreement, arrangement or
commitment which:
(a) has or is expected to have material consequences in terms of
expenditure or revenue;
62
(b) relates to matters outside the ordinary business of that Group
Company or was not entered into on arms' length terms;
(c) constitutes a commercial transaction or arrangement which
deviates from the usual pattern for that Group Company;
(d) can be terminated in the event of any change in the underlying
ownership or control of that Group Company or would be materially
affected by such change;
(e) cannot readily be fulfilled or performed by it on time; or
(f) cannot be terminated, without giving rise to any liabilities on
any Group Company, by that Group Company giving 3 months' notice
or less.
16.3 No Group Company:
(a) has outstanding any bid, tender, sale or service proposal which
is material in relation to its business or which, if accepted,
would be likely to result in a loss;
(b) or WarrantorWarrantor is aware of any actual, potential or
alleged breach, invalidity, grounds for termination, grounds for
rescission, grounds for avoidance or grounds for repudiation of,
any contract to which any Group Company is a party; or
(c) has granted any power of attorney or other such authority
(whether express or implied) which is still outstanding.
16.4 All contracts of the Group are valid and binding and enforceable in
accordance with their terms. No Group Company is in breach or default
of any of its contracts.
16.5 No Group Company is in breach or default of any of the terms of the
contract between Eidos plc and the Company, dated 28 June 1996, for
the acquisition of Centresoft Limited ("THE EIDOS CONTRACTand no Group
Company has made, or has become entitled to make any claim under or in
respect of the Eidos Contract (or the Taxation Deed executed pursuant
thereto) whether under the warranties, the Taxation Deed or otherwise.
17. TERMS OF TRADE
No Group Company has given any guarantee or warranty (other than any implied by law) or made any representation in respect of any product or services sold or supplied by it nor has it accepted any liability to service, maintain, repair or otherwise do or refrain from doing anything in relation to such goods or services after they have been sold or supplied by it except for those contained in its standard conditions of trading, complete and accurate copies of which are contained in the Disclosure Letter.
18. PRODUCT LIABILITY AND YEAR 2000
18.1 No Group Company has manufactured, sold or provided any product or
service which does not in every respect comply with all applicable
laws, regulations or standards or which is defective or dangerous or
not in accordance with any representation or warranty, express or
implied, given in respect of it.
18.2 The products, systems and services used by the Company for its own
internal purposes which are dependant in any way on automatic
instructions or any computer hardware or software meet Year 2000
conformity.
18.3 The products, systems and services used by the Company for its own
internal purposes will not be affected, in terms of performance or
functionality, by the use of dates before, during and after the Year
2000.
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19. LICENCES AND CONSENTS
19.1 Complete and accurate details of all licences, consents, permissions,
authorisations and approvals required by each Group Company for the
carrying on of its business are contained in the Disclosure Letter and
all of them have been obtained by that Group Company and are in full
force and effect.
19.2 All reports, returns and information required by law or as a condition
of any licence, consent, permission, authorisation or approval to be
made or given to any person or authority in connection with the
business of any Group Company have been made or given to the
appropriate person or authority and there are no circumstances which
indicate that any licence, consent, permission, authorisation or
approval might not be renewed in whole or in part or is likely to be
revoked, suspended or cancelled or which may confer a right of
revocation, suspension or cancellation.
20. TRADING PARTNERS
20.1 No Group Company acts or carries on business in partnership with any
other person or is a member of any corporate or unincorporated body,
undertaking or association.
20.2 No Group Company is a party to any joint venture agreement or
arrangement or any agreement or arrangement under which it is to
participate with any other person in any business.
20.3 No Group Company is a party to any agency, distributorship, licence or
management agreement or is a party to any contract or arrangement
which restricts its freedom to carry on its business in such manner as
it may think fit in any part of the world.
20.4 No Group Company has any branch, agency, place of business or
establishment outside the United Kingdom.
21. COMPETITION AND TRADE REGULATION LAW
21.1 No Group Company is or has been a party to, or is or has been
concerned in any agreement or arrangement, or is conducting or has
conducted itself, whether by omission or otherwise, in a manner which:
(a) contravenes, is invalidated in whole or in part by or has been,
or should have been, registered under the Restrictive Trade
Practices Acts 1976 and 1977;
(b) contravenes the provisions of the Resale Prices Act 1976, the
Trade Description Acts 1968 and 1972, the Fair Trading Act 1973
or any secondary legislation made under either of those Acts;
(c) infringes Article 85 or 86 of the Treaty of Rome or any
regulation or directive made under it or any other anti-trust or
similar legislation in any jurisdiction in which any Group
Company has assets or carries on or intends to carry on business
or where its activities may have any effect.
21.2 No Group Company has:
(a) given an undertaking to, or is subject to, any order of or
investigation by, or has received any request for information
from;
(b) received, nor so far as the Warrantors are aware, is it likely to
receive any process, notice or communication, formal or informal
by or on behalf of;
(c) been or is a party to, or is or has been concerned in, any
agreement or arrangement in respect of which an application for
negative clearance and/or exemption has been made to
the Office of Fair Trading, the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, the
Secretary of State, the European Commission or any other governmental
or other authority, department, board, body or agency of any country
having jurisdiction in anti-trust or similar matters in relation to
its business.
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22. COMPLIANCE WITH LAW
22.1 No Group Company has committed or is liable for, and no claim has been
or, so far as the Warrantors are aware, will be made that any Group
Company has committed or is liable for, any criminal, illegal,
unlawful or unauthorised act or breach of any obligation or duty
whether imposed by or pursuant to statute, contract or otherwise.
22.2 No Group Company has received notification that any investigation or
inquiry is being, or has been, conducted by, or received any request
for information from any governmental or other authority, department,
board, body or agency in respect of the affairs of any Group Company
and, so far as the Warrantors are aware, there are no circumstances
which would give rise to such investigation, inquiry or request.
65
22.3 None of the activities, contracts or rights of any Group Company is
ultra vires, unauthorised, invalid or unenforceable or in breach of
any contract or covenant and all documents in the enforcement of which
any Group Company may be interested are valid.
23. LITIGATION AND DISPUTES
23.1 Except for actions to recover any debt incurred in the ordinary course
of the business owed to any Group Company where each individual debt
and its costs outstanding amounts to less than L50,000:
(a) no Group Company nor any person for whose acts a Group Company
may be liable is engaged in any litigation, arbitration,
administrative or criminal proceedings, whether as plaintiff,
defendant or otherwise;
(b) no litigation, arbitration, administrative or criminal
proceedings by or against any Group Company or any person for
whose acts a Group Company may be liable are threatened or
expected and, as far as the Warrantors are aware, none are
pending;
(c) there are no facts or circumstances likely to give rise to any
litigation, arbitration, administrative or criminal proceedings
against any Group Company or any person for whose acts a Group
Company may be liable.
23.2 No Group Company is subject to any order or judgement given by any
court or governmental or other authority, department, board, body or
agency or has not been a party to any undertaking or assurance given
to any court or governmental or other authority, department, board,
body or agency which is still in force, nor are there any facts or
circumstances likely to give rise to any Group Company becoming
subject to such an order or judgement or to be a party to any such
undertaking or assurance.
24. OWNERSHIP AND CONDITION OF ASSETS
24.1 Each of the assets included in the Accounts or acquired by any Group
Company since the Accounts Date (other than the Properties and current
assets subsequently disposed of or realised in the ordinary course of
business) is owned both legally and beneficially by a Group Company
free from any third party rights and, if capable of possession, is in
the possession of that Group Company.
24.2 Each item of plant and machinery, vehicle and office equipment used by
each Group Company is:
(a) in good repair and condition, regularly maintained and certified
safe and without risk to health when used;
66
(b) capable and will remain capable of doing the work for which it
was designed or purchased until the time when (on the basis of
depreciation adopted in the Accounts) it will have been written
down to a nil value;
(c) not surplus to requirements; and
(d) not expected to require replacement or additions within 6 months
of Completion.
24.3 No Group Company has acquired, or agreed to acquire, any asset on
terms that title to that asset does not pass until full payment is
made or all indebtedness incurred in connection with the acquisition
is discharged.
24.4 The assets owned by each Group Company, together with all assets held
under hire purchase, lease or rental agreements which are contained in
the Disclosure Letter, comprise all assets necessary for the
continuation of the business of each Group Company as it is currently
carried on.
25. STOCK
No part of the stocks of materials of any Group Company is redundant, obsolete, obsolescent or defective.
26. CHARGES AND ENCUMBRANCES OVER ASSETS
26.1 No option, right to acquire, mortgage, charge, pledge, lien (other
than a lien arising by operation of law in the ordinary course of
trading) or other form of security or encumbrance or equity on, over
or affecting the shares or the whole or any part of the undertaking or
assets of any Group Company, including any investment in any other
Group Company, is outstanding and, apart from this Agreement, there is
no agreement or commitment to give or create any of them and no claim
has been made by any person to be entitled to any of them.
26.2 No floating charge created by a Group Company has crystallised and
there are no circumstances likely to cause such a floating charge to
crystallise.
26.3 No Group Company has received notice from any person intimating that
it will enforce any security which it may hold over the assets of any
Group Company, and there are no circumstances likely to give rise to
such a notice.
26.4 All charges in favour of a Group Company have, if required, been
registered in accordance with the provisions of the Companies Act
1985, Part XII.
27. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
27.1 Complete and accurate details of all Intellectual Property and copies
of all licences and other agreements relating to it are contained in
the Disclosure Letter.
67
27.2 The Company is the sole legal and beneficial owner of the Intellectual
Property used in connection with its business (including but not
limited to the Software) and has absolute unencumbered title to such
Intellectual Property and such Intellectual Property is not subject to
any outstanding rights of any third party of any nature whatsoever or
to any option or agreement for licence or purchase in favour of any
person nor do any circumstances exist whereby any person may claim
entitlement to such Intellectual Property in competition with the
Company and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing no
employee of the Group is entitled to any award or compensation in
respect thereof whether under the Patents Act 1977 or otherwise.
27.3 All Marks and Patents (if any) used by the Group in the course of its
business are registered in the name of the relevant Group Company as
proprietor.
27.4 As regards all Marks owned by the Group the Group has paid all renewal
and other fees or expenses which may be necessary to ensure the
continuance in force of the registrations of the said Marks.
27.5 All Know-How used by the Group in connection with its business is its
sole property and each Group Company has neither disclosed to nor
licensed any third party to use such Know-How.
27.6 None of the operations of the Group infringe any industrial property
rights or intellectual property rights of any third party and the
Group is not liable to make any payment of any royalty or fee in
respect of the same.
27.7 Each Group Company does not use on its letterheads, business cards,
circulars, advertisements, brochures, sales literature or vehicles or
otherwise carry on business under a name other than its corporate
name.
27.8 None of the Intellectual Property used by the Group in its business
has been assigned or is being used, claimed, opposed or attacked by
any person nor are the relevant Group Company's rights thereto being
infringed.
27.9 The Group has not entered into any agreement which restricts the
disclosure or use by the Group of any Know-how or technical
information or other Intellectual Property and there has not been any
infringement by any third party of any of the rights in confidential
information or other Intellectual Property held by the Group.
27.10 Each Group Company is the beneficial owner of all Intellectual
Property in the Software.
27.11 The Intellectual Property in the Software is free from encumbrances
and /or any third party interests.
27.12 The Group has quiet enjoyment of all Intellectual Property in the
Software at the date hereof.
68
27.13 No part of any of the Intellectual Property in any of the Software has
except in the ordinary course of business been licensed, transferred,
assigned, charged or otherwise encumbered or dealt with.
27.14 There is no third party Software licensed to the Group which the
Company needs for its business.
27.15 No part of any of the Software is manufactured, supplied or licensed
by any Group Company under any licence, consent or permission from any
third party.
27.16 In respect of any part of any Software written, developed or
originated by an employee or director of a Group Company:
(a) all such Software was written, developed or originated by such
employee in the course of his employment by such Group Company;
and
(b) the contract of employment between the relevant Group Company and
such employee provides for the Group Company to own all rights in
and to such Software; and
(c) if sub-paragraphs 27.16(a) and (b) do not both apply, such
employee has expressly assigned as beneficial owner to the
relevant Group Company all Intellectual Property in and to such
Software.
27.17 The Group is in possession of all source code to the Software
including without limitation to the generality of the foregoing,
source-code listings, flow-charts and all accompanying documentation.
28. DIRECTORS AND EMPLOYEES
28.1 Complete and accurate details of the terms and conditions of
employment of all employees of each Group Company, including the date
of commencement of their continuous period of employment, salary,
position, notice period, non-cash benefits, age and any arrangements
or assurances (whether or not legally binding) in relation to their
employment, are contained in the Disclosure Letter and no employee is
engaged on a form of employment contract copies of which have not been
previously supplied to Activision or its advisors.
28.2 Each Group Company has maintained up-to-date, adequate and suitable
records regarding the service and terms and conditions of employment
of each of its employees.
28.3 Save as disclosed in the Disclosure Letter no Group Company is a party
to any consultancy agreement, any agreement for management services or
any contract of
69
services with any director and any such agreement or contract does not
constitute a contract of employment.
28.4 Since the Accounts Date there has been:
(a) no material alteration in the terms of employment or any material
change in the number of employees employed by any Group Company;
or
(b) no material increase in any fees, remuneration or benefits paid
or payable to any officer or employee of any Group Company, nor
are any negotiations for any such increase current or likely to
take place in the next 6 months.
28.5 No officer or employee of any Group Company is remunerated on a
profit-sharing, bonus or commission basis.
28.6 Other than salary for the current month and accrued holiday pay, no
amount is owing to any present or former officer or employee of any
Group Company.
28.7 There is no share option or share incentive scheme in operation by or
in relation to any Group Company for any of its officers or employees
nor is the introduction of such a scheme been proposed.
28.8 Each Group Company has at all relevant times complied with all its
obligations under statute and otherwise concerning the health and
safety at work of its employees and there are no claims capable of
arising or pending or threatened by any employee or third party in
respect of any accident or injury which are not fully covered by
insurance.
28.9 Save as provided for or taken into account in the Accounts:
(a) no claim or liability to make any payment of any kind to any
person who is or has been an officer or employee has been
received or incurred by any Group Company whether under the
Employment Rights Act 1996, Sex Discrimination Act 1975, the Race
Relations Act 1976 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 or
otherwise; and
(b) no gratuitous payment of a material amount has been made or
promised by any Group Company in connection with the actual or
proposed termination or suspension of employment or variation of
any contract of employment of any present or former officer or
employee.
28.10 No officer or employee of any Group Company has given notice or is
under notice of dismissal nor are there any service contracts between
any Group Company and its officers or employees which cannot be
terminated by the relevant Group Company by 12 weeks notice or less
without giving rise to a claim for damages or compensation (other than
a statutory redundancy payment).
70
28.11 No Group Company has:
(a) any actual, pending or threatened claims against it by any
current or former employee;
(b) any employees who are on long term sick leave or in receipt of
PHI payments; or
(c) any employee under warning under the terms of the relevant Group
Company's disciplining procedure.
28.12 No Group Company has:
(a) entered into any arrangement involving the acquisition of
non-cash assets from or disposal to;
(b) granted any loan or quasi-loan to or entered into any guarantee
or credit transaction with; or
(c) provided any security in connection with any loan, quasi-loan or
credit transaction to or with or entered into any other
transaction with
any director or person connected with a director within the meaning of
the Companies Act 1985.
28.13 Any redundancy payments made by a Group Company have been calculated
and paid in accordance with statutory requirements and no external
redundancy payments have been made by any Group Company.
28.14 Each Group Company has abided at all times with the terms of any
practice guides, employment procedural documents and any other
employment manuals produced by the Group.
29. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
29.1 No Group Company is a party to any contract, agreement or arrangement
with any trade union or other body or organisation representing any of
its employees.
29.2 Each Group Company has in relation to its employees and former
employees complied with all conditions of service, customs and
practices and, where relevant, all collective agreements and
recognition agreements for the time being.
29.3 Within the last 12 months, no Group Company has:
(a) given notice of any redundancies to the Secretary of State,
started consultations with any appropriate representatives or
failed to comply with any obligation under the provisions of
Chapter II Trade Union and Labour Relations (consolidation) Act
1992; or
71
(b) been a party to any relevant transfer as defined in the Transfer
of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 or
has failed to comply with any duty to inform and consult any
appropriate representative under the Regulations.
29.4 No dispute has arisen between any Group Company and a material number
or category of its employees nor are there any present circumstances
known to the Warrantors which are likely to give rise to any such
dispute.
29.5 No training schemes, arrangements or proposals exist nor have there
been any such schemes, arrangements or proposals in the past in
respect of which a levy may become payable by any Group Company under
the Industrial Training Act 1982.
30. PENSIONS
30.1 No Group Company has any plans, schemes or arrangements in relation to
death, disability or retirement of any of its employees.
30.2 In relation to each plan, scheme or arrangement disclosed under
paragraph 30.1 in the Disclosure Letter:
(a) complete and accurate details:
(i) of it (including, where appropriate, copies of all trust
deeds and rules together with copies of all amending deeds
and resolutions and the latest actuarial reports); and
(ii) of the basis on which the relevant Group Company makes, or
is liable to make, contributions to it
are contained in the Disclosure Letter.
(b) all contributions which are payable by any Group Company in
respect of it and all contributions due from the employees of the
relevant Group Company as members of it have been duly made and
the relevant Group Company has fulfilled all its obligations
under it;
(c) it has been administered in accordance with the preservation
requirements within the meaning of Section 69, Pension Schemes
Act 1993, the equal access requirements of Section 118, Pension
Schemes Act 1993, the contracting-out requirements of Part III,
Pension Schemes Act 1993 and all relevant requirements of the
Pensions Act 1995 and in accordance with the trusts, powers and
provisions of such plans, schemes or arrangements;
(d) no undertakings or assurances have been given to any employee of
any Group Company as to the continuance, introduction, increase
or improvement of any pension rights or entitlements which any
Group Company and/or Activision
72
would be required to implement in accordance with good industrial
relations' practice and whether or not there is any legal
obligation so to do;
(e) no power to augment benefits has been exercised;
(f) no discretion has been exercised to admit to membership a present
or former director or employee who would not otherwise be
eligible for admission to membership;
(g) no discretion has been exercised to provide in respect of a
member a benefit which would not otherwise be provided;
(h) all benefits (other than a refund of contributions with interest
where appropriate) payable on the death of a member while in
service, or during a period of sickness or disability of a
member, are fully insured under a policy effected with an
insurance company to which the Insurance Companies Act 1982
applies and the Warrantors are not aware of any circumstances in
which such insurance would be invalidated;
(i) all liabilities or benefits accrued in respect of service
completed at Completion are secured on an ongoing basis taking
account of future increases in salary to normal retirement date
and increases in pensions on the basis of realistic actuarial and
financial assumptions and the obligations imposed on it as a
result of Barber -v- Guardian Royal Exchange; and
(j) it is an exempt approved scheme and/or retirement annuity
approved, or capable of being approved, under the Taxes Act and
the Warrantors are not aware of any reasons why any such approval
could be withdrawn.
30.3 No death, disability or retirement gratuity is currently being paid or
has been promised nor will pending Completion be paid or promised by
any Group Company to or in respect of any officer or employee of any
Group Company.
31. TITLE
31.1 The Properties comprise all the properties presently owned, occupied,
held, controlled or otherwise used by any Group Company and a Group
Company is in actual and exclusive occupation and is the legal and
beneficial owner of each Property.
31.2 The relevant Group Company's Leasehold title to each of the Properties
is good and marketable (subject to prevailing market conditions).
31.3 Each Property is occupied or otherwise used by a Group Company by
right of ownership or under the Leases, the terms of which permit its
occupation or use as tenant and not
73
under any provision allowing the parting of or sharing of possession
with group or associated companies and there are no outstanding
circumstances which would restrict the continued possession and
enjoyment of any Property or any part of it.
31.4 All deeds and documents necessary to prove title to each Property are
in the possession and control of the Group Companies and consist of
original deeds and documents or properly examined abstracts.
31.5 No person is in adverse possession of any Property or has acquired or
is acquiring any rights or overriding interests (as defined by Section
70, Land Registration Act 1925) adversely affecting any Property.
31.6 No Group Company has had occasion to make any claim or complaint in
relation to any neighbouring property or its use or occupation and
there are no disputes, claims, actions, demands or complaints in
respect of any Property which are ongoing nor are any disputes,
claims, actions, demands or complaints anticipated and no notices
materially affecting any Property have been given or received and not
complied with.
32.1 No Property is subject to any outgoings other than business rates,
water rates and insurance premiums and, in the case of leasehold
properties, rent, insurance rent and service charges.
32.2 No Property is subject to any restrictive covenant, reservation,
stipulation, easement, profits a prendre, wayleave, licence, grant,
restriction, overriding interest, agreement for sale, estate contract,
option, right of pre-emption or other similar agreement or right
vested in third parties.
32.3 So far as the Warrantors are aware there are no matters capable of
registration against any Property as a Land Charge, caution,
inhibition, notice or restriction.
32.4 Where sub-paragraphs 32.1 to 32.3 inclusive have been disclosed
against in the Disclosure Letter, the obligations and liabilities
imposed and arising under the disclosed matter have been fully
observed and performed and any payments in respect of it which are due
and payable have been duly paid.
33. PLANNING MATTERS
33.1 No notices have been received with regard to breaches of Planning
Permissions which have not been complied with.
33.2 So far as the Warrantors are aware all necessary planning permissions
have been obtained for each Property.
74
33.3 Building regulation consents have been obtained with respect to all
alterations and improvements to the Properties.
33.4 In respect of each Property, the Group Companies have complied in all
respects with:
(a) planning permissions, orders and regulations issued under the
Planning Acts, the London Building Acts and building regulation
consents and by-laws for the time being in force;
(b) all agreements under Section 52, Town and Country Planning Act
1971 and planning obligations under Section 106, Town and Country
Planning Act 1990; and
(c) all agreements made under Sections 38 and 278, Highways Act 1980,
Section 33, Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982,
Section 18, Public Health Act 1936 and Section 104, Water
Industry Act 1991.
33.5 So far as the Warrantors are aware all claims and liabilities under
the Planning Acts or any other legislation have been discharged and no
claim or liability, actual or contingent, is outstanding.
34. STATUTORY OBLIGATIONS
34.1 So far as the Warrantors are aware each Group Company has complied
with all applicable statutory and by-law requirements with respect to
the Properties, and in particular with the requirements as to fire
precautions under the Fire Precautions Act 1971 and under the Public
Health Acts, the Offices, Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963, the
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, the Factories Act 1961 and the
Shops Acts 1950 to 1956.
34.2 No licences are required in relation to any of the Properties under
the Licensing Act 1988.
35. ADVERSE ORDERS
35.1 So far as the Warrantors are aware there are no compulsory purchase
notices, orders or resolutions affecting any of the Properties and
there are no circumstances likely to lead to any being made.
35.2 The Warrantors have not received any closing, demolition or clearance
orders, enforcement notices or stop notices affecting the Properties.
36. CONDITION OF THE PROPERTIES
36.1 Each Property enjoys the mains services of water, drainage,
electricity and gas.
36.2 No Property is located in an area or subject to circumstances which
makes it susceptible to subsidence or flooding.
37. LEASEHOLD PROPERTIES
37.1 Each Lease is valid and in full force and there are no circumstances
which would entitle any landlord or other person to exercise any power
of entry or take possession of the Properties.
37.2 Each Group Company has paid the rent and observed and performed the
covenants on the part of the tenant and the conditions contained in
any Lease to which it is a party.
37.3 All licences, consents and approvals required from the landlords and
any superior landlords for the grant of the Leases and during the
continuance of the Leases have been obtained and any covenants on the
part of the tenant contained in those licences, consents and approvals
have been duly performed and observed.
37.4 There are no rent reviews outstanding or in progress under any Lease.
37.5 In the case of a lease granted for more than 21 years, the lease is
registered at HM Land Registry with absolute title.
37.6 No Group Company has in the past been the tenant of or guarantor of
any leasehold premises not listed in Schedule 5 in respect of which
any obligations or liabilities could still accrue to that Group
Company.
37.7 Where any property is occupied by a Group Company under an underlease
then:
(a) there are no covenants contained in any superior lease which
would affect the use and enjoyment by a Group Company of such
premises;
(b) the grant of any underlease to a Group Company was strictly in
accordance with the provisions of any superior lease; and
(c) the Warrantors will disclose details of the Intermediary Lease if
they receive or are notified of them.
38. TENANCIES
38.1 The Properties are not held subject to, and with the benefit of, any
tenancy other than the Tenancies.
38.2 Complete and accurate details of:
(a) the rent and any rent reviews and, with respect to rent reviews,
the date for giving notice of exercise of the reviews and the
operative review date;
(b) the term and any rights to break or renew the term;
76
(c) the obligations of the landlord and tenant in respect of
outgoings, repairs, user, insurance services and service charge;
(d) any options, pre-emption or first refusal rights;
(e) the user required or permitted under the terms of the Tenancies;
(f) any entitlement of a tenant of the whole or any part of the
Properties to compensation on quitting the premises let to him in
respect of disturbance and improvements or otherwise; and
in relation to each Tenancy are contained in the Disclosure Letter.
38.3 The Warrantors are not aware of any material or persistent breaches by
a tenant of any of the Properties.
39. CONTAMINATION
39.1 So far as the Warrantors are aware the Property is not entered in any
register introduced under the Environment Act 1995 or otherwise as
land which may be contaminated or which may have been put to a
contaminative use.
40. OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS
40.1 No Group Company has received any notification under Environmental law
from a Government appoint environmental agency concerning its use
and/or occupation of the Property.
40.2 No Group Company has been threatened with any investigation or enquiry
by any organisation, or received any complaint, in connection with the
Environment.
40.3 Copies of any reports relating to the Environment commissioned by the
Group are enclosed in the Disclosure Letter.
TAXATION
41. EVENTS SINCE THE ACCOUNTS DATE
(a) Since the Accounts Date:
(i) there has been no disposal by any Group Company of any asset or supply of any service or business facility of any kind, including a loan of money or the letting, hiring or licensing of any property whether tangible or intangible, in circumstances where the consideration actually received or
receivable for such disposal or supply was less than the consideration which could be deemed to have been received for Tax purposes;
(ii) no event has occurred which will give rise to a Liability to Taxation on any Group Company, calculated by reference to deemed, as opposed to actual Profits or which will result in any Group Company becoming liable to pay or bear a Liability to Taxation directly or primarily chargeable against or attributable to another person, firm or company other than another Group Company;
(b) no disposal has taken place or other event occurred which will, or may have, the effect of crystallising a Liability to Taxation which would have been included in the provision for deferred Taxation contained in the Accounts if such disposal or other event had been planned or predicted at the Accounts Date;
(c) no Group Company has made any payment, or incurred any obligation to make a payment, which will not be deductible in computing trading profits for the purposes of Tax, or be deductible as a management expense of an investment company;
(d) no Group Company has been a party to any transaction for which any Tax clearance provided for by statute has been, or could have been, obtained;
(e) no Group Company has paid, or become liable to pay, any interest or penalty in connection with any Tax, has otherwise paid any Tax after its due date for payment, or owes any Tax the due date for payment of which has passed or will arise in the next 30 days; and
(f) no accounting period of any Group Company has ended (within the meaning of Section 12, ICTA).
42. LIABILITY
42.1 Other than Taxation provided for in the Accounts or in respect of a
liability Taxation occurring prior to 29 June 1996 or on Profits
attributable to transactions in the ordinary course of trading since
the Accounts Date, no Group Company is accountable or liable for any
form of Taxation.
42.2 All documents which are required to be stamped or on which any form of
Taxation is due and which are in the possession of any Group Company,
or by virtue of which any Group Company has any right, have been duly
and sufficiently stamped or the Taxation on such documents has been
paid.
43. RECORDS AND COMPLIANCE
43.1 Since 28 June 1996 each Group Company has duly complied with all
requirements imposed on it by any statute, law, regulation or similar
provision, providing for, imposing or relating to Taxation and in
particular:
(a) since 28 June 1996 each Group Company has punctually paid all
Taxation for which it is liable and made all withholdings and
deductions in respect, or on account, of any Taxation from any
payments made by it which it is obliged or entitled to make and
has accounted punctually and in full to the appropriate Tax
Authority for all amounts so withheld or deducted;
(b) since 28 June 1996 each Group Company has properly prepared and
punctually submitted all notices and returns required for Tax
purposes and provided complete and accurate information to any
Tax Authority and all such returns and information remain
complete and accurate;
(c) since 28 June 1996 each Group Company has kept and maintained
complete and accurate accounting records, invoices and other
documents appropriate or requisite for Tax purposes and has
sufficient records relating to past events to calculate its
liability to Taxation or the relief from Taxation which would
arise on any disposal or on the realisation of any assets owned
at Completion;
(d) since 28 June 1996 there are no disputes, unsettled or
outstanding assessments or appeals in respect of Taxation and no
Group Company has since 28 June 1996 been subject to any back
duty enquiry or other dispute with any Tax Authority and there
are no circumstances which may give rise to such an enquiry or
dispute;
(e) no Group Company has since 28 June 1996 been liable or will
become liable to pay any interest, penalty, fine or sum of a
similar nature in respect of Taxation nor, in relation to value
added tax, has received any penalty liability notice, surcharge
liability notice or other written notice or warning under the
VATA;
(f) since 28 June 1996 each Group Company has duly submitted all
claims and disclaimers which have been assumed to have been made
for the purposes of the Accounts.
43.2 The draft computations of the liability to corporation tax of each
Group Company for the period of twelve months to 31 March 1997 and the
period of one month to 30 April 1997 ("the Draft Computations") are
appended to the Disclosure Letter. The Draft Computations are so far
as the Warrantors are aware complete and accurate in all material
respects and there are no facts, matter or circumstances known to the
Warrantors which may give rise to any enquiry or dispute with the
Inland Revenue and which would result in a material increase in the
taxation provision of any Group Company for the accounting period
ended on the Accounts Date if the Draft Computations are submitted to
the Inland Revenue in their present form.
79
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43.3 No Group Company has since 28 June 1996 received any audit, visit or
inspection from any Tax Authority and no such audit, visit or
inspection is imminent or has been requested.
43.4 The amount of Tax chargeable on each Group Company or subject to
withholding or deduction by that Group Company during any accounting
period ending since 28 June 1996 has not to any material extent
depended on any concession, agreement, dispensation or other formal or
informal arrangement with any Tax Authority.
43.5 No Group Company is liable in respect of the period after 28 June 1996
to be assessed to Tax as agent for, or on account of, or otherwise on
behalf of, any other person.
43.6 No Group Company has since 28 June 1996 made any claim or application
to pay any Tax by instalments or to defer the payment of any Tax.
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44. VAT
44.1 Each Group Company:
(a) is registered for the purpose of, and has since 28 June 1996
complied in all respects with, the VATA and is not subject to any
conditions imposed or agreed with H M Customs & Excise; and
(b) is not, and has not since 28 June 1996 been a member of a group
for value added tax purposes under Section 43, VATA.
44.2 No Group Company has been since 28 June 1996 subject to The Value
Added Tax (Payments on Account) Order 1992.
44.3 No Group Company is, or has since 28 June 1996 been, an agent or
representative for, or otherwise liable to account for, value added
tax for or on account of any other person pursuant to Sections 47 or
48, VATA.
44.4 All supplies made by each Group Company are taxable supplies, and all
input tax for which any Group Company has claimed credit since 28 June
1996 has been paid by that Group Company, in respect of supplies made
to it relating to goods or services used or to be used for the purpose
of that Group Company's business.
44.5 No Group Company has since 28 June 1996 been required to give security
under paragraph 4, Schedule 11, VATA.
44.6 No Group Company has made since 28 June 1996 , nor will prior to
completion make, any election to waive exemption under paragraph 2,
Schedule 10, VATA.
44.7 No Group Company has acquired any assets to which the provisions of
Part XV, Value Added Tax Regulations 1995 (the Capital Goods Scheme)
may apply.
45. BALANCE SHEET VALUES
45.1 No Liability to Taxation will arise or be incurred on a disposal by
any Group Company of any of its assets for:
(a) in the case of each asset owned at the Accounts Date, a
consideration equal to the value attributed to that asset in
preparing the Accounts; or
(b) in the case of each asset acquired since the Accounts Date, a
consideration equal to the consideration given for the
acquisition.
46. CLOSE COMPANY
46.1 No Group Company is, nor has it at any time since 28 June 1996 either a close company within the meaning of Section 414, ICTA or a close investment holding company for the purposes of Section 13A, ICTA.
46.2 No Group Company has at any time since 28 June 1996 :
(a) made any loan, advance or payment or given any consideration or
effected any transaction falling within Sections 419 to 422
(inclusive), ICTA;
(b) made a transfer of value which is or may be liable to Tax under
the provisions of Section 94, Inheritance Tax Act 1984, or
(c) made a transfer falling within the provisions of Section 125,
TCGA.
47. GROUP TRANSACTIONS
47.1 Since 28 June 1996 no Group Company has acquired any asset from any
other company which was at the time of acquisition, and which has
since the time of acquisition ceased to be a member of the same group
of companies as that Group Company.
47.2 Since 28 June 1996 no Relevant Claim or Surrender has been claimed by
any Group Company or taken into account in preparing the provision for
Taxation in the Accounts (or in audited accounts for prior years)
which could or might be effectively withdrawn, postponed, restricted
or otherwise lost or not available and no Group Company is required to
pay any sum in respect of any Relevant Claim or Surrender other than
such sum as may be provided in the Accounts.
47.3 Since 28 June 1996 all Relevant Claims and Surrenders made by each
Group Company were valid and have been or will be allowed by way of
relief from Taxation.
48. CAPITAL GAINS
(a) made any claim under Sections 152 to 158 (inclusive), TCGA; or
(b) acquired or disposed of any asset, or entered into any transaction whatsoever otherwise than by way of bargain at arms length.
49. DEDUCTIBLE EXPENSES
No Group Company is under any obligation to make any payment which, or to provide a benefit the cost of which, will be prevented from being deductible for Tax purposes, whether as a deduction in computing the profits of a trade or as an expense of management or as a charge on income.
50. DIVIDENDS AND DISTRIBUTIONS
50.1 No Group Company has at any time since 28 June 1996 made any
distribution within the meaning of Sections 209 to 211 (inclusive) and
Section 418, ICTA except in respect of any dividends disclosed in the
Accounts.
50.2 Save as provided in the Accounts, no Group Company is liable to make
any payment of advance corporation tax or an amount equivalent to
advance corporation tax.
50.3 Except as expressly contemplated by this Agreement no Group Company
has since 28 June 1996 purchased, repaid or redeemed or agreed to
purchase, repay or redeem its share capital, or capitalised or agreed
to capitalise in the form of redeemable shares or debentures any
profits or reserves, or otherwise issued any share capital or other
security as paid up otherwise than by the receipt of new consideration
within the meaning of Section 254, ICTA.
50.4 No Group Company has at any time since 28 June 1996 been a party to or
otherwise involved in any transaction to which Sections 213 to 218
(inclusive), ICTA applied.
51. INHERITANCE TAX AND GIFTS
51.1 No circumstances exist under which any power within Section 212,
Inheritance Tax Act 1984 could be exercised in relation to, and there
is no Inland Revenue charge (within the meaning of Section 237,
Inheritance Tax Act 1984) attaching to, any shares or securities in or
over any assets of any Group Company.
51.2 No Group Company is liable and there are no circumstances in existence
since 28 June 1996 as a result of which it may become liable to be
assessed to Tax as donor or donee of any gift or transfer or
transferee of value.
52. ANTI-AVOIDANCE
Since 28 June 1996, no Group Company has entered into, or been party to, any scheme or arrangement designed partly or wholly for the purpose of avoiding or deferring Taxation,
such that a Liability to Taxation may arise after Completion as a result of or in consequence of such a scheme or arrangement.
53. OVERSEAS MATTERS
53.1 Each Group Company has at all times since 28 June 1996 been resident
for Tax purposes in the United Kingdom, which is the only country
whose Tax Authorities seek to charge tax on the worldwide income,
profits or gains of such company and no Group Company has during the
past 6 years paid Tax and is not liable to pay Tax on its income,
profits or gains to any Tax Authority in any other country.
53.2 No Group Company has since 28 June 1996 carried out any transaction
which is or was unlawful under Section 765, ICTA.
PART II
ACTIVISION WARRANTIES
54. Activision is a corporation duly formed, validly existing and in good standing under the laws of its state of incorporation, with all necessary corporate power and authority under applicable laws to execute this Agreement and to consummate the transactions contemplated by this Agreement.
55. The execution of this Agreement and the performance by Activision of its obligations under this Agreement have been duly authorised by all necessary corporate action.
56. The Consideration Stock, upon its delivery to the Warrantors in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement, will have been duly and validly authorised, issued and delivered by Activision and the Consideration Stock will be fully paid for and non-assessable.
57. Activision has previously made available to the Warrantors, and the Warrantors by their execution of this Agreement acknowledge receipt of, the following documents filed by Activision with the SEC:
(a) Activision's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal years ended 31 March 1997 and 1996;
(b) Activision's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended 30 September 1997; and
(c) Activision's Proxy Statement dated 29 July 1997 with respect to the annual meeting of Stockholders held on 24 September 1997 ("THE SEC DOCUMENTS"). As of their respective dates, none of the SEC Documents contained any untrue
statement of a material fact or omitted to state a material fact required to be stated in such documents or necessary to make the statements in such documents not misleading. As of their respective dates, the SEC Documents complied in all material respects with the rules and regulations under the Securities Acts.
58. Since 30 September 1997 there has been no material adverse change in the financial or trading position or property of Activision PROVIDED THAT Activision gives no warranty in relation to movements in its stock price on NASDAQ as a result of unusual market conditions nor as a result of the announcement of the transactions contemplated by this Agreement.
LEASEHOLD PROPERTIES
1. Unit 2, Holford Way, Witton, Birmingham held under a lease dated 21 May 1986 made between Holford Estates Ltd (1) and CentreSoft Ltd (2) for a term of 25 years as is registered at HM Land Registry under title number WM 383599.
2. Unit 3, Holford Way, Witton, Birmingham held under a lease dated 21 May 1986 made between Holford Estates Ltd (1) and CentreSoft Limited (2) for a term of 25 years from 21 May 1986 as is registered at HM Land Registry under title number WM 383598.
3. Unit 4, Holford Way, Witton, Birmingham held under a lease dated 12 July 1990 made between Holford Estates Ltd (1) and CentreSoft Limited (2) for a term commencing on 25 March 1990 and expiring on 20 May 2011 as is registered at HM Land Registry under title number WM 510986.
4. Unit 5, Holford Way, Witton, Birmingham held under a lease dated 6 August 1987 made between Holford Estates Ltd (1) and The Timken Company (2) for a term of 25 years from 1 June 1987 as is registered at HM Land Registry under title number WM 412447.
5. 142 Wellhead Way, Witton Works, Witton, Birmingham held under a lease dated 7 February 1997 made between Holford Estates Ltd (1) and PDQ Distribution Ltd (2) for a term of 2 years from 7 February 1997.
6. 142d Wellhead Way, Witton Works, Witton, Birmingham held under a lease dated 29 September 1997 made between Holford Estates Ltd (1) and PDQ Distribution Ltd (2) for a term commencing on 29 September 1997 and expiring on 6 February 1999.
1. Underlease of the ground and first floors of Units 2 and 3 Holford Way, as
aforesaid dated 28 June 1996 made between CentreSoft Ltd (1) and Eidos
Interactive Ltd (2) for a term of 2 years from 28 June 1996.
SCHEDULE 6
(DIVIDEND PAYMENT)
LOAN INTEREST AND DIVIDENDS PAYABLE TO CLOSE SECURITIES LIMITED:- 1 DECEMBER 1997
AMOUNT LOAN DESCRIPTION PERIOD RATE GROSS INCOME ACT NET
NOTES/SHARES TAX PAYMENT
L L
L L
L2,000,000.00 15% Secured Subordinated 3 months 15% 75,000.00 15,000.00 0.00 60,000.00
Loan Notes 1998-2000
800,000 Redeemable Preference 3 months 12p p.s. 30,000.00 0.00 6,000.00 24,000.00
Shares of 10p
133,333 Convertible Preference 3 months 12p p.s. 5,000.00 0.00 1,000.00 4,000.00
Shares of L1
47,059 "A" Ordinary Shares of 1p 3 months 10p p.s. 1,470.58 0.00 294.12 1,176.46
19,608 "B" Ordinary Shares of 1p 3 months 10p p.s. 612.75 0.00 122.55 490.20
112,083.33 15,000.00 7,416.67 89,666.66
---------- --------- -------- ---------
---------- --------- -------- ---------
SIGNED by SIMON ANTHONY HUNT )
in the presence of: )
SIGNATURE OF WITNESS:
NAME:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
SIGNED by DAVID NEAL )
in the presence of: )
NAME:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
SIGNED by GARY CHRISTOPHER )
HAWKINS in the presence of: )
SIGNATURE OF WITNESS:
NAME:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
SIGNED by NORMAN CECIL BROWN )
in the presence of: )
SIGNATURE OF WITNESS:
NAME:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
SIGNED by Andrew Richard )
Waterhouse in the presence of: )
SIGNATURE OF WITNESS:
NAME:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
SIGNED by RICHARD ANDREW STEELE )
in the presence of: )
SIGNATURE OF WITNESS:
NAME:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
SIGNED by ROGER GRAHAM SWINDELLS )
in the presence of: )
SIGNATURE OF WITNESS:
NAME:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
SIGNED by STEVEN GRAHAM VARNISH )
in the presence of: )
NAME:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
SIGNED by - )
for and on behalf of )
ACTIVISION, INC., )
in the presence of: )
SIGNATURE OF WITNESS:
NAME:
ADDRESS:
OCCUPATION:
between
1. kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH, a German corporation, with its registered office in Munich, registered in the Commercial Register of Munich under number HRB 117436 ("Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH")
2. Activision, Inc., a Delaware Corporation with principal offices in Santa Monica, California, U.S.A. ("Activision, Inc.")
and
3. Mr. Detlef Erhardt, Fasanenweg 3, D - 93133 Burglengenfeld, Germany ("Detlef Erhardt");
4. Mrs. Ingrid Herrmann, Fasanenweg 3, D - 93133 Burglengenfeld, Germany ("Ingrid Herrmann");
(Detlef Erhardt and Ingrid Herrmann collectively also the "NBG-Shareholders")
A. NBG EDV Handels und Verlags GmbH
1. The registered share capital of NBG EDV Handels- und Verlags GmbH ("NBG") with its registered office in Burglengenfeld, registered in the Commercial Register of Amberg under number HRB 1636, amounts to a nominal value of DM 100,000.00. It is divided into four (4) shares, all of which have been fully paid in.
NBG was founded by Detlef Erhardt and Ingrid Herrmann on September 2, 1991 by notarial deed of the notary Martin Eicher, Worth a. d. Donau, role of deeds no. 0903/1991; each of them subscribed to a share in the nominal value of DM 25,000.00 each. On June 17, 1996, the share capital was raised by notarial deed of the notary Walter Kolb in Burglengenfeld, role of deeds
no. 1399/1996, to a nominal value of DM 100,000.00; Detlef Erhardt and Ingrid Herrmann subscribed to a share in the nominal value of DM 25,000.00 each.
2. All shares in NBG are held as follows:
2.1 Detlef Erhardt holds two shares with a nominal value of DM 25,000.00 each;
2.2 Ingrid Herrmann holds two shares with a nominal value of DM 25,000.00 each.
B. TARGET SOFTWARE VERTRIEBS GMBH
1. The registered share capital of TARGET SOFTWARE VERTRIEBS GMBH ("TARGET") with its registered office in Burglengenfeld, registered in the Commercial Register of Amberg under number HRB 2278, amounts to a nominal value of DM 50,000.00. It is divided into two shares, both of which have been fully paid in.
TARGET was founded by Detlef Erhardt and Ingrid Herrmann on April 16, 1997 by notarial deed of the notary Walter Kolb in Burglengenfeld, role of deeds no. 875/1997; each of them subscribed to a share in the nominal value of DM 25,000.00 each.
2. All shares in TARGET are held as follows:
2.1 Detlef Erhardt holds one share with a nominal value of DM 25,000.00;
2.2 Ingrid Herrmann holds one share with a nominal value of DM 25,000.00.
Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH desires to exchange with the NBG-Shareholders all their respective shares in NBG and TARGET
(NBG and TARGET collectively also called the "NBG Companies") for shares in Activision, Inc.
NOW THEREFORE, it is agreed as follows:
1.1 Detlef Erhardt hereby transfers to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH his two shares in NBG with a nominal value of DM 25,000.00 each as stated in A.2.1 of the preamble together with all ancillary rights, including, without limitation, the rights to vote such shares and the rights to all profits the distribution of which is resolved in the future. Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH hereby accepts such transfer.
1.2 Ingrid Herrmann hereby transfers to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH her
two shares in NBG with a nominal value of DM 25,000.00 each as stated in
A.2.2 of the preamble together with all ancillary rights, including,
without limitation, the rights to vote such shares and the rights to all
profits the distribution of which is resolved in the future. Kappaphoenicis
Beteiligungs GmbH hereby accepts such transfer.
2.1 Detlef Erhardt hereby transfers to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH his share in TARGET with a nominal value of DM 25,000.00 as stated in B.2.1 of the preamble together with all ancillary rights, including, without limitation, the rights to vote such share and the rights to all profits the distribution of which is resolved in the future.
Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH hereby accepts such transfer.
2.2 Ingrid Herrmann hereby transfers to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH her share in TARGET with a nominal value of DM 25,000.00 as stated in B.2.2 of the preamble together with all ancillary rights, including, without limitation, the rights to vote such share and the rights to all profits the distribution of which is resolved in the future. Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH hereby accepts such transfer.
3.1 In exchange for the transfer of his shares in NBG as stated in A.2.1 of the preamble, Detlef Erhardt shall receive 130,597 shares in Activision, Inc.
3.2 In exchange for the transfer of her shares in NBG as stated in A.2.2 of the preamble, Ingrid Herrmann shall receive 130,597 shares in Activision, Inc.
3.3 In exchange for the transfer of his share in TARGET as stated in B.2.1 of the preamble, Detlef Erhardt shall receive 927 shares in Activision, Inc.
3.4 In exchange for the transfer of her share in TARGET as stated in B.2.2 of the preamble, Ingrid Herrmann shall receive 927 shares in Activision, Inc.
3.5 The shares in Activision, Inc. to be received by the NBG-Shareholders will be duly authorized, validly issued, fully paid and non-assessable shares of Activision, Inc.'s common stock US$ 0.000001 par value per share (the "Activision Shares") and will be delivered to the NBG-Shareholders free and clear of any and all liens, hypothecations, encumbrances or restrictions of any kind other than restrictions on
transfer imposed by United States Federal Securities Laws and regulations and by other applicable laws and the restrictions set forth in Article 6 of this Agreement (collectively, the "Permitted Restrictions").
3.6 Subject to Section 6.2 below, each of the NBG-Shareholders shall receive his or her respective number of Activision Shares on the date of this Agreement. The respective share certificates (other than to be deposited in escrow under Section 6.2) have been handed over to the NBG-Shareholders. Activision, Inc. shall hand over on behalf of the NBG-Shareholders the remaining Activision Shares to the Escrow Agent under the document called Warranty Escrow Agreement, still to be signed by City National Bank, a copy of which is attached hereto as EXHIBIT A.
4.1 Guarantees with respect to the NBG shares, the TARGET shares and the NBG-Shareholders
As an inducement to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH and Activision, Inc. and recognizing Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH's and Activision Inc.'s reliance thereupon, the NBG-Shareholders, jointly and severally, guarantee in the form of an independent guarantee ("selbstandiges Garantieversprechen") to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH and Activision, Inc., each of them separately, with respect to the shares in the NBG Companies that as of the date of this Agreement:
(1) each of the NBG-Shareholders has full power and authority to enter into and perform this Agreement, which constitutes a binding obligation on him or her in accordance with its terms;
(2) the statements in the preamble of this Agreement are complete and correct. The respective registered share capital of the NBG Companies stated in the preamble has been fully paid in; no refunds have been made (Sec. 30 para. 1 GmbHG, German Act on Limited Liablity Companies).
There is no liability to affect further contributions ("Nachschusse") pursuant to Sec. 26 GmbHG (German Act on Limited Liability Companies);
(3) NBG-Shareholders hold each of their shares as stated in the preamble as sole beneficial owner in their own name and on their own account and can dispose of them freely and without consent of any third party. The shares are free of any encumbrances for the benefits of third parties or other rights of third parties and there is no agreement or arrangement to give or create any such encumbrance or right;
(4) the NBG-Shareholders are entitled to transfer the shares as stated in the preamble to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH on the terms of this Agreement without the consent of any third party;
(5) each of the NBG-Shareholders acknowledges and understands that he or she is responsible for obtaining independent legal advice with respect to the Activision Shares and the restrictions attached to NBG-Shareholders' right to sell or transfer in any way said Activision Shares; that such NBG-Shareholder has been given the opportunity to ask questions of and receive answers from, the officers of Activision, Inc. concerning Activision, Inc. and its business and the terms and conditions of the transactions contemplated by this Agreement; and that in view of NBG-Shareholders' extensive discussions with representatives of Activision, Inc. concerning such transactions, disclosures by Activision, Inc. to NBG-
Shareholders shall constitute disclosure to each of the NBG-Shareholders and all NBG-Shareholders for all purposes, including without limitation for purposes of with the applicable securities laws regarding disclosure;
(6) the shares transferred by each of the NBG-Shareholders do not constitute the entire assets of that NBG-Shareholder within the meaning of Sec. 419 BGB (German Civil Code);
(7) each of the NBG-Shareholders guarantees that he or she is not an U.S.-citizen or -resident;
(8) none of the NBG Companies or any of the NBG-Shareholders has taken any action or engaged in any activities that would preclude Activision, Inc.'s ability to account for the exchange of shares (the "Exchange") under this Agreement as a pooling of interests;
(10) each of the NBG-Shareholders has signed and delivered the document called the Warranty Escrow Agreement, still to be signed by City National Bank, a copy of which is attached hereto and incorporated as EXHIBIT A;
(11) Detlef Erhardt and Ingrid Herrmann have executed and delivered their employment agreements with NBG in the form and substance as previously discussed with representatives of Activision, Inc.;
(12) the members of the Supervisory Board, if any, of each of the NBG Companies resign as of the date of this Agreement;
4.2 Guarantees with Respect to NBG Companies
As an inducement to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH and Activision, Inc. and recognizing Kappaphoenicis
Beteiligungs GmbH's and Activision, Inc.'s reliance thereupon, the NBG-Shareholders, jointly and severally, guarantee in the form of an independent guarantee ("selbstandiges Garantieversprechen") to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH and Activision, Inc., each of them separately, with respect to the NBG Companies that as of the date of this Agreement unless stipulated herein otherwise:
(1) NBG and TARGET are limited liability companies (Gesellschaften mit beschrakter Haftung), duly organized under the laws of the Federal Republic of Germany and validly existing.
The NBG Companies have full corporate power and authority to own the assets and to carry on the respective business as now being conducted;
(2) copies of the presently valid Articles of Association of each of the NBG Companies have been handed over to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH. There exist no Shareholders' Resolutions and/or obligations concerning any amendments of the Articles of Association with the exception of the Shareholders' Resolution at NBG concerning its conversion into a stock corporation which has been handed over to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH;
(2a) in the last twelve (12) months there have been made no dividend or other payments to the NBG-Shareholders nor do there exist any shareholders' resolutions regarding any future dividend or other payments to the NBG-Shareholders;
(3) the copies of the annual accounts as of June 30, 1997 of each of the NBG Companies (the "Financial Statements"), which have been handed over to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH, have been prepared with the care of an duly acting business man in
accordance with the German principles of accounting and book-keeping ("GOB") pursuant to Sec. 243 HGB (German Commercial Code). The Financial Statements fairly present in all material respects the financial and profit situation of the NBG Companies at the respective dates of and for the periods referred to in such Financial Statements, observing continuity in the accounting and evaluation methods. The NBG Companies' Financial Statements were delivered to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH prior to the execution of this Agreement. The NBG Companies are in good financial standing;
(4) except as set forth in Schedule 4.2 (4) which is attached to this Agreement, the NBG Companies have no liabilities or obligations of any nature (whether fixed or contingent) as of the date of this Agreement except for liabilities reflected or reserved against in the Financial Statements; furthermore, the NBG Companies are not liable for any indemnity or warranty risks of more than DM 100,000.00 in total with respect to services and/or deliveries performed prior to the date of this Agreement unless sufficient reserves have been created in respect thereof in the Financial Statements;
(4a) the operating profit (i.e. net revenues minus operating expenses) for the first quarter of NBG's current fiscal year, i. e. for the quarter until September 30, 1997, amounts to a minimum of DM 160,000.00;
(4b) except as set forth in Schedule 4.2 (4b), there exist no loans to or from the NBG-Shareholders;
(5) the NBG Companies have duly withheld or collected, and to the extent required, paid to the proper governmental authority or other person all taxes due as of the date of this Agreement, including all VAT,
that each of the NBG Companies is legally required to withhold, collect and pay.
No external tax audit took place yet. There are no ongoing tax audits of or relating to any of the NBG Companies. As of September 30, 1997, the financial reporting has been prepared according to the tax reporting standards; since that date the company has filed all necessary tax statements and/or advance statements and has paid all amounts shown on such statements and the statements have been prepared in good faith and reflect all amounts due by their respective dates;
(6) the business of each of the NBG Companies has been properly conducted since June 30, 1997 in accordance with the ordinary course of business. Since then, there has not been any material adverse change of the business, operations, properties, prospects, assets or conditions, financial or otherwise, of each of the NBG Companies, and no event has occurred or circumstance exists that may result in such a material adverse change, in particular:
(a) No liabilities of any kind have been created for which there has not been a reasonable quid pro quo; in particular, no contracts with danger of losses other than ordinary commercial losses at the time the contracts were awarded have been accepted;
(b) No assets have been assigned without reasonable consideration;
(c) No liabilities have been created which fall outside the ordinary course of business;
(d) No substantial agreements of each of the NBG Companies have been concluded, changed or
terminated which fall outside the ordinary course of business;
(e) There has been no damage or loss which either individually or cumulatively could have a material effect on the existence of each of the NBG Companies or its financial situation;
(f) no hidden distributions of profits have been made.
(7) Each of the NBG Companies has paid, or has made provision for the payment of, all employee's contributions and employer's contributions to social insurance and pension, deferred compensation and other employee benefit payments required to be made by each of the NBG Companies with respect to its employees and agents and which are due as of the date of this Agreement. The consummation of the transactions contemplated by this Agreement will not result in the payment, vesting or accelaration of any benefit available to the employees of each of the NBG Companies under any pension plan or other employee benefit plan or under any employment contract or other arrangements;
(8) Schedule 4.2 (8), which is attached to this Agreement, contains a complete and correct list of all industrial property rights (patents, trademarks, corporate and design patents) and intellectual property rights, which are owned by each of the NBG Companies. None of the NBG Companies is in violation of and/or has breached any licensing agreement with respect to patents, trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property. All of the patents, trademarks, copyrights and other intellectual property used by each of the NBG Companies in the conduct of its business are either owned by the respective NBG company or can be used according to
licensing agreements to which the respective NBG company is party and which are valid. Except in the sphere of distribution (which for these purposes means merely purchasing and reselling of finished goods), for which Schedule 4.2 (8a) contains a complete list of all known infringements, and all pending or threatened claims of infringement, none of the patents, trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property rights by each of the NBG Companies in the conduct of its business infringes on the intellectual property rights of any third party;
(9) the conduct and operation of each of the NBG Companies' businesses have been and are in conformity with all applicable laws and regulations and none of the NBG Companies has received any notice asserting or suggesting any failure, or potential failure, to comply with or confirm to any such laws or regulations;
(10) all assets of each of the NBG Companies which can be included in the balance sheet are fully owned by the respective NBG company without being subject to any charges. None of the NBG Companies is subject to any restrictions on disposal in relation to these items. Excepted are reservations of title and other security rights in accordance with normal business practice. Schedule 4.2.(10), which is attached to this Agreement, contains a complete and correct list of all assets which are subject to reservations of title or other security rights.
All objects in the asset side of each of the NBG Companies and used by the respective NBG company in its business are in an operational state;
(11) each contract, agreement, commitment or understanding to which an NBG company is a party that is material to the respective NBG company's business, or that
involves the payment by, or to, the respective NBG company of more than DM 40,000.00 in any twelve (12) months period (collectively, the "Material Contracts") is listed on Schedule 4.2 (11), which is attached to this Agreement. of the NBG Companies has received notice of default with respect to and none of the NBG Companies is in default under any of the Material Contracts. The contracts with customers of any of the NBG-Companies contain no unusual obligations for any of the NBG Companies that could result in a material loss under such contract;
(12) none of the NBG Companies has entered into any agreements, undertakings or commitments which would in any material way prevent or restrict the respective NBG company's business in continuing or further developing its business and/or would legally prevent or restrict its ability to compete with other companies;
(13) unless otherwise listed in Schedule 4.2 (13), which is attached to this Agreement, no law suits that are or could be material to an NBG Company or with an amount claimed of DM 5,000.00 or more, administrative proceedings or investigations against any of the NBG Companies and/or the respective representatives and/or employees of the respective NBG company, the latter two only with respect to the business of the respective NBG company, have been initiated, notified or to the best knowledge of the NBG-Shareholders threatened to any of the NBG Companies, nor are any material circumstances known that would make the initiation of any such law suits, administrative proceedings or investigations appear likely to occur;
(14) none of the information concerning each of the NBG Companies, each of the NBG Companies' business or the NBG-Shareholders that each of the NBG Companies or the NBG-Shareholders will supply Activision, Inc. for
use in any of Activision, Inc.'s filings under United States Securities Laws will contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the statements made therein, in light of the circumstances under which they will be made, not misleading;
(15) Schedule 4.2 (15), which is attached to this Agreement, contains a complete and accurate list of the following information for each employee or director of each of the NBG Companies, including each employee on leave of absence or layoff status, stating name, job, title, professional qualifications, permits held, current compensation paid or payable and any change in compensation since June 30, 1997, vacation accrued, and service credited for purposes of eligibility and vesting under any social insurance or employee benefit plan or under any employment contracts or other arrangements; the two standard employment contracts of the NBG Companies have been handed over to Activision, Inc., and there are no material variations from these standard forms for any employee;
(16) none of the NBG Companies has any real property rights or similar rights;
(17) notwithstanding any other guarantees of NBG-Shareholders, no guarantee of NBG-Shareholders in this Agreement and no statement in any Schedule or Exhibit hereto omits to state a material fact necessary to make the statements herein or therein, in light of the circumstances in which they were made, not misleading. None of the NBG-Shareholders knows of any information, which is, or which may reasonably be regarded as, material to an accurate appraisal of the NBG Companies' businesses, assets, liabilities and affairs of each of the NBG Companies
and which has not been disclosed in writing to Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH;
(18) with the exception of the two Kreditgarantiegemeinschaft fur Handel in Bayern GmbH-loans given by Bayerische Landesanstalt fur Aufbaufinanzierung in the amount of DM 1,000,000.00 and DM 400,000.00, none of the NBG Companies' contracts with third parties contains any change of control provisions (Kundigungsrechts oder auflosende Bedingung bei Wechsel des Mehrheitsgesellschafters) which could trigger termination of the respective contract in consequence of the signing of this Agreement and/or the transactions contemplated by this Agreement; each of the NBG Companies' contracts with third parties will stay in force after the date of this Agreement on identical terms and conditions immediately subsequent to the date of this Agreement;
(18a) NBG-Shareholders shall use their best efforts to maintain the existing banking relationships on their respective current levels;
(19) Schedule 4.2 (19), which is attached to this Agreement, contains a complete and accurate list of all insurance contracts of each of the NBG Companies;
(20) Schedule 4.2 (20), which is attached to this Agreement, contains a complete and correct list of all bank accounts, brokerage and/or securities accounts and/or custody accounts, if any, of each of the NBG Companies and of all persons authorized to sign;
(21) Schedule 4.2 (21), which is attached to this Agreement, contains a complete and correct list of all powers of attorney issued by each of the NBG Companies;
(22) if existent, the board of directors of each of the NBG Companies has approved of the transactions under this Agreement. All necessary approvals by each of the NBG Companies and/or the NBG-Shareholders have been obtained; any rights of first refusal have been waived.
5.1 Guarantees
As an inducement to the NBG-Shareholders and recognizing the
NBG-Shareholders' reliance thereupon, Kappaphoenicis
Beteiligungs GmbH and Activision, Inc. guarantee in the form
of an independent guarantee ("selbstandiges
Garantieversprechen") to the NBG-Shareholders that:
(1) Activision, Inc. is a corporation duly organized, validly
existing and in good standing under the laws of the State
of Delaware, U.S.A. Activision, Inc. has full corporate
power and authority to own its assets and to carry on its
business as now being conducted;
(2) Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH is a corporation duly
organized, validly existing and in good standing under
the laws of Germany;
(3) the copy of the Amended and Restated Certificate of
Incorporation of Activision, Inc. as amended (the
"Certificate of Incorporation") and By-laws of
Activision, Inc. as currently in effect, previously
delivered to the NBG-Shareholders, is complete and
correct;
(4) Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH has previously made
available to the NBG-Shareholders (and the NBG-
Shareholders by their execution of this Agreement acknowledge receipt of) the following documents filed by Activision, Inc. with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission: (i) Activision, Inc.'s Annual Reports on Form 10-K for the fiscal years ended March 31, 1997 and 1996; and (ii) Activision, Inc.'s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarters ended June 30, 1997, and September 30, 1997; (the "SEC Documents"). As of their respective dates, none of the SEC Documents contained any untrue statements of a material fact or omitted to state a material fact required to be stated in such documents or necessary to make the statements in such documents not misleading. As of their respective dates, the SEC Documents complied as to form in all material respects with rules and regulations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended;
(5) the execution, delivery and performance of this Agreement by Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH has been authorized by all necessary corporate action. This Agreement constitutes the legal, valid and binding obligation of Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH, enforceable against Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH in accordance with its terms. Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH has the absolute and unrestricted right, power, authority and capacity to execute and deliver this Agreement and the other documents to be delivered by Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH hereunder and to perform the obligations under this Agreement and such other documents;
(6) the authorized capital stock of Activision, Inc. on the date of this Agreement is as set forth in the Certificate of Incorporation. The Activision Shares, upon their delivery to the Shareholders in accordance with the provisions of this Agreement, will have been
duly authorized, validly issued and fully paid for and non-assessable;
(7) no guarantee of Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH in this Agreement and no statement by Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH in any Schedule or Exhihit hereto contains or shall contain an untrue statement of a material fact or omits to state a material fact necessary to make the statements herein or therein, in light of the circumstances in which they were made, not misleading. Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH does not know of any information which is, or which may reasonably be regarded as, material to an accurate appraisal of the business, assets, liabilities and affairs of Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH and Activision, Inc. and which has not been disclosed to NBG-Shareholders;
(8) Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH will use its
commercially reasonable efforts to be substituted as the
guarantor of the NBG Companies' loans listed in Schedule
5.1 (8) or, if the banks do not agree to such
substitution, to indemnify Detlef Erhardt and Ingrid
Herrmann if any of the NBG Companies fails to repay the
respective loans, resulting in a call on Detlef Erhardt's
and Ingrid Herrmann's guarantee.
6.1 Restrictions on Sale of Activision Shares
The NBG-Shareholders acknowledge and agree that the Activision
Shares will be issued to the NBG-Shareholders without
registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the
"Securities Act"), based upon the "private offering
exemption", in reliance upon appropriate written
representations from the NBG-Shareholders; further evidenced
by restrictive legends on the certificates representing
Activision Shares and "stop transfer" instructions to
Activision Inc.'s transfer agent. Activision Shares will be
"restricted securities" within the meaning of the Securities
Act and the related rules and regulations. Notwithstanding the
provisions of the Securities Act, the NBG-Shareholders
acknowledge and agree that the NBG-Shareholders shall not
sell, pledge, gift, hypothecate or otherwise transfer or
dispose of any of the Activision Shares until the issuance by
Activision, Inc. of its first earnings press release including
at least thirty (30) days post-transaction combined operations.
6.2 Share Hold Back
In order to insure that the representations, warranties and/or
guarantees made by the NBG-Shareholders under this Agreement
are not breached, and in order to provide a source of
indemnification of Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH and/or
Activision, Inc. pursuant to Article 7, each of the
NBG-Shareholders agree that 10 % of the Activision Shares to
be received by them under this Agreement shall be deposited in
an escrow account (the "Escrow Account") pursuant to a
Warranty Escrow Agreement in the form attached hereto as
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set forth in the Escrow Agreement, and shall be based upon the
price of US$ 15.5625 per Activision share and an exchange rate
of US Dollars to Deutsche Marks of $ 0.576710/DM 1.00. All
Activision Shares subject to such offset or deduction shall be
canceled by Activision, Inc. and the remaining Activision
Shares, together with any dividends paid or distributions made
with respect to such Activision Shares that have not been
canceled, shall be then delivered to the NBG-Shareholders in
accordance with their respective interests. Notwithstanding
the foregoing, Activision Shares held in the Escrow Account
pursuant to the provisions of this Section 6.2 shall not be
deemed the sole source of recourse by Kappaphoenicis
Beteiligungs GmbH and/or Activision, Inc. for indemnification
under this Agreement and the NBG-Shareholders shall remain at
all times jointly and severally liable in accordance with
Article 7 below.
6.3 Registration of Activision Shares
(1) Registration on Form S-3
Activision, Inc. agrees to use its best efforts to file
with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
(the "SEC"), within sixty (60) days after the date of
this Agreement, a registration statement on Form S-3, or
on such other form which may be mutually acceptable to
the parties, registering under the Securities Act,
pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act ("Rule
415") (if available), the offer and sale in the future of
up to all of Activision Shares issued by Activision, Inc.
pursuant to this Agreement. Activision, Inc. further
agrees to (a) use its best efforts to cause such
registration statement to be declared effective by the
SEC within a time frame which is as soon as practible
under the circumstances, (b) maintain the effectiveness
of such registration statement or successor registration
statement filed by Activision, Inc. for the purpose
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of registering the Activision Shares (such registration statements being collectively referred to as the "Registration Statement") until Activision Shares are eligible to be resold without restriction on disposition pursuant to the Securities Act and its related rules and regulations, (c) update the prospectus included in the Registration Statement (the "Prospectus") from time to time as may be necessary to assure that the Prospectus does not make any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary in order to make the Prospectus not misleading, and (d) provide such number of copies of the Registration Statement and the Prospectus (as so updated) to the NBG-Shareholders as they may reasonably request in order to facilitate the public sale or other disposition of Activision Shares covered by such Registration Statement.
(2) Costs and Expenses
Activision, Inc. shall bear the filing and registration fees and the costs incurred for its legal counsel, accounting and all other costs and expenses, excluding costs for legal counsel and accountants for the NBG-Shareholders, which may be incurred in connection with the preparation and filing of the Registration Statement pursuant to Section 6.3 (1). The NBG-Shareholders shall be responsible for broker's commissions and underwriters' fees in connection with the sale of the Activision Shares.
(3) The rights granted in this Section 6.3 are not assignable to any transferee of Activision Shares acquired by the NBG-Shareholders under this Agreement.
(4) Cooperation and Indemnification
The NBG-Shareholders, jointly and severally, agree that they will provide all required cooperation and furnish all necessary information and enter into such agreements customarily required of selling stockholders in connection with the preparation of the Registration Statement filed under the terms of this Section 6.3 and the disposition of their Activision Shares pursuant to such Registration Statement, and the NBG-Shareholders, jointly and severally, will represent and warrant the accuracy and completeness of all written information so furnished for inclusion in the Registration Statement and agree to indemnify and hold Activision, Inc. and its directors, officers, shareholders and underwriters harmless from and against any liability, loss or damage (including costs and attorneys' fees), incurred by or sustained by or asserted against any of them arising out of or based on any untrue statement (or alleged untrue statement) of a material fact contained in the information provided by the NBG-Shareholders or based on any omission (or alleged omission) to state a material fact required to be stated therein or necessary to make the statements therein not misleading.
(4b) Activision will indemnify and hold the NBG-Shareholders harmless from and against any liability, loss or damage (including costs and attorneys' fees) (collectively "Damages") incurred by or sustained by or asserted against any of them arising out of or based on any untrue statement (or alleged untrue statement) of material fact contained in the Registration Statement or based on any omission (or alleged omission) to state a material fact required to be stated therein or necessary to make the statements herein not misleading, except to the
extent such Damages arise out of or are based on any information provided by the NBG-Shareholders.
7.1 Liability
Unless stipulated otherwise in this Agreement, in the event of
a breach of representations, warranties and/or guarantees
under this Agreement, the breaching party shall put the other
party into the position the party would have been if such
representations, warranties and/or guarantees had not been
breached. If it is not possible to do this within four (4)
weeks after the breaching party has received such request from
the other party, the other party and/or - if the breaching
party are the NBG-Shareholders - also the respective NBG
company can request full pecuniary compensation from the
breaching party, in particular, all claims, demands, losses,
costs, expenses, obligations, liabilities, actions, suits,
damages including without limitation interests and penalties,
counsel fees. Any further statutory remedies, including but
not limited to cancellation of contract (Wandlung, Rucktritt)
and diminuation of the purchase price (Minderung) are excluded
to the extent possible under statutory law. This limitation
shall not be applicable in case of defect of title
(Rechtsmangel) of one or more of the shares in any of the NBG
Companies.
Claims shall be excluded if such claims are not raised until
two (2) years after the date of this Agreement; provided that
in respect of the guarantees regarding taxes the expiry date
shall not be until 6 months after the assessment by the
respective governmental authority has become final and
binding. The respective NBG-Shareholders shall be given the
opportunity at their own cost to take
part in an external tax audit and to file an appeal against
tax demands with which they are charged or to demand the
filing of such an appeal.
The aforementioned expiry dates are deadlines
(Ausschlussfristen) within which the party making a claim must
have sent a written notification of the claims explaining the
grounds herefor in reasonable detail.
7.2 Liability Limitation
No party hereto shall have an obligation toward the others
under representations, warranties and/or guarantees or related
statutory claims unless and until the aggregate amount of such
claims against such party exceeds DM 100,000.00 or the
equivalent in any other currency, and if so, then only the
amount over such DM 100,000.00 shall be payable to the other
party.
None of the NBG-Shareholders shall be liable to Kappaphoenicis
Beteiligungs GmbH and/or Activision, Inc. under any provision
of this Agreement or a related statutory provision for an
amount in excess of DM 5,750,000.00. This limitation is not
applicable in case of liability arising from defects of title
("Rechtsmangel") of the shares in any of the NBG Companies.
ARTICLE 8
NON-COMPETE UNDERTAKING
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Except for the present activities (i. e. educational software development) in the present extent of and in connection with Caps Software Design AG i.G., until November 26, 1999, NBG-Shareholders shall neither directly nor indirectly develop, market, sell, purchase or otherwise deal with any such products or services or become direct or indirect shareholders of
companies that compete with any of the NBG Companies in their present business (i.e. marketing, sale and distribution of entertainment, educational and "edutainment" software products) in their present markets (i. e. Germany, Austria and German-speaking parts of Switzerland). Within this purview and until November 26, 1999, NBG-Shareholders shall not solicit any employees or customers of any of the NBG Companies without the prior written consent of Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH.
Activision, Inc. guarantees Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH's obligations to deliver Activision Shares under this Agreement.
Presently Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH is a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of Activision, Inc.
10.1 The NBG-Shareholders hereby irrevocably, unconditionally and without
time limit guarantee by way of independent guarantee ("selbstandiges
Garantieversprechen") the timely and complete fulfillment of all
obligations of the NBG-Shareholders entered into or resulting from this
Agreement.
10.2 Further Assistance
Each party agrees to make all reasonable efforts to cooperate with the
other in post-closing matters that may arise in regard to taxes and
the like. NBG-Shareholders shall use their best efforts to assist and
to cause the NBG Companies' independent tax advisors to assist
Activision, Inc. in preparation of such audit and Financial Statements
for each of the NBG Companies as are necessary to enable
Activision, Inc. to comply with the accounting and/or reporting
requirements promulgated under the Securities Act and Securities and
Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, in the United States.
10.3 Notices
All notices made pursuant to this Agreement shall be valid only if
made by a person authorized to receive notices as per below by
Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH or the NBG-Shareholders, as the case
may be, and sent by registered mail, return receipt requested or
facsimile, to the parties at the addresses set forth below, or as set
forth in any notice of change of address given in writing in the
manner prescribed herein to all other parties.
If to KappaphoenicisActivision GmbH
Beteiligungs GmbH and/or Auf der Haar 47,
Activision, Inc.: D-33332 Gutersloh,
Germany
Fax: +49 (5241) 48 08 48
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with a required copy to: 1. Activision, Inc.
2. Robinson Silverman Pearce Aronsohn & Berman LLP attn.: Kenneth L. Henderson, Esq. 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10104, USA Fax: +1 (212) 541-4630
If to Activision, Inc.: Activision, Inc.
with a required copy to: Robinson Silverman Pearce Aronsohn & Berman LLP attn.: Kenneth L. Henderson, Esq.
If to Detlef Erhardt: Fasanenweg 3,
D - 93133 Burglengenfeld, Germany
Fax: +49 (9471) 70 17 77
If to Ingrid Herrmann: Fasanenweg 3,
D - 93133 Burglengenfeld, Germany
Fax: +49 (9471) 70 17 66
10.4 Choice of Law, Venue
This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with
the substantive laws of Germany. The exclusive legal venue for all
disputes in connection with this Agreement is Munich, Germany.
10.5 Assignment
This Agreement may not be assigned by any party without the prior
written consent of the other party.
10.6 Waiver
No waiver of any term, provision or condition of this Agreement,
whether by conduct or otherwise, in any one or more instances, shall
be deemed to be or be construed as a further or continuing waiver of
any such term, provision or
condition or as a waiver of any other terms, provisions or conditions
of this Agreement.
10.7 Severability
The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this Agreement
in any jurisdiction shall not invalidate or render unenforceable any
other provision herein. Any invalid or unenforceable provision shall
be replaced by such reasonable provision as comes closest to what the
parties wanted or would have wanted to apply in accordance with the
meaning and purpose of this Agreement if they had considered such
invalidity or unenforceability when entering into this transaction.
The same shall apply correspondingly to the filling of any gaps.
10.8 Announcement
Activision, Inc., Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH and
NBG-Shareholders shall cooperate in the preparation of any
announcements regarding the transaction contemplated by this
Agreement. Except as required by applicable law (in which case such
announcing party shall prior thereto advise the other party), no party
shall issue any announcement regarding the transactions contemplated
hereby without the prior written consent of the other party, which
consent shall not be unreasonably withheld.
10.9 Entire Agreement
This Agreement (including all attachments, i. e. Exhibits and
Schedules) constitutes the entire understanding between the parties
with respect to the subject matter hereof, supersede all negotiations,
prior discussions and preliminary agreements. Neither party gives any
warranty or accepts any liability in addition to those expressed in
this Agreement. Amendments and additions to this Agreement are
required to be in written form, to the extent no notarial form
is prescribed by statute. The requirement for
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written form can be lifted only by written agreement for the parties. The headings of this Agreement are not a part of this Agreement but are for convenience purposes only.
10.10 Attachments
All Exhibits and Schedules are essential parts of this document. They
are referred to.
10.11 Costs
Each party to this Agreement shall bear the costs for its legal
counsel, accounting and all other expenses incurred in connection with
this Agreement. Kappaphoenicis Beteiligungs GmbH shall bear the costs
of notarization of this Agreement.
10.12 Copies
Each party shall receive certified copies (1 beglaubigte Abschrift, 1
Ausfertigung) of this deed. One certified copy shall be sent to
Finanzamt - Korperschaftsteuerstelle -.
This document was read aloud including the schedules and exhibits by the notary. Approved by the parties present and signed by them and the notary.
End of Filing
