Starboard Value takes stake in Riot Platforms, eyes AI shift
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Activist investor Starboard Value has taken a “significant position” in Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms, The Wall Street Journal said. The financial details were not reported, but the news gave Riot a boost in stock price.
Looking to unlock Riot’s value
According to the newspaper’s unnamed sources, Starboard Value has been urging Riot to repurpose some of its Bitcoin (BTC) mining capacity for hyperscalers — large data center users — which have grown drastically in number due to the artificial intelligence boom.
The newspaper had seen a statement by Riot confirming that talks had taken place between the parties. It quoted Riot as saying:
“We are committed to creating value for all shareholders, and we look forward to constructive dialogue with Starboard on ways to achieve this shared goal.”
According to its website, Starboard “seeks to invest in deeply undervalued companies and actively engage with management teams and boards of directors to identify and execute on opportunities to unlock value for the benefit of all shareholders.”
Source: WSJ Markets
Related: Bitfarms, Riot settle dispute with board changes
Moving Riot onto the AI bandwagon
Several miners have already converted capacity to high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. According to fund manager VanEck, as of August, Riot, MARA and Cleanspark were among the publicly traded miners holding out against the trend.
Bit Digital, Core Scientific, Hive Digital, Hut 8 and IREN had already made the transition to mixed use.
Riot announced on Dec. 9 that it was proposing to raise $500 million to buy more Bitcoin through senior convertible notes. In that respect, it was following at least seven publicly traded Bitcoin miners and data centers in doing so.
Riot’s stock price was down almost 25% this year, according to the newspaper. It hit a high of $17.64 on Feb. 14 and a low of $6.38 on Sept. 6. The price rose over 10% on Dec. 12 on news of Starboard Value’s involvement. The stock closed up 4.8% at $12.33.
Neither Riot nor Starboard Value responded immediately to a Cointelegraph request for comment.
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