Exhibit 10.1
EXECUTION COPY
AMENDED AND RESTATED STOCKHOLDERS
AGREEMENT
AMENDED AND RESTATED STOCKHOLDERS
AGREEMENT, dated as of April 2, 2007, by and among Quadrangle
Master Funding Ltd, a Cayman Islands exempted company incorporated
with limited liability (“ QMFL ” and together
with QDRF Master Ltd, a Cayman Islands exempted company
incorporated with limited liability, Quadrangle Debt Opportunities
Fund Master Ltd, a Cayman Islands exempted company incorporated
with limited liability and any other Affiliates that receive Common
Shares in a Permitted Transfer (as defined below), “
QDRF ”), POI Acquisition, LLC, a Delaware limited
liability company (together with any of its Affiliates that receive
Common Shares in a Permitted Transfer, “ POI
Acquisition ”), and Protection One, Inc., a Delaware
corporation (the “ Company ”). Each of QDRF and
POI Acquisition is referred to individually as a “
Stockholder ” and, collectively, as the “
Stockholders ”.
WHEREAS, the parties hereto entered
into a Stockholders Agreement, dated as of February 8, 2005 (the
“ Original Stockholders Agreement ”), providing,
among other things, for certain arrangements relating to governance
of the Company and transfers by the Stockholders;
WHEREAS, pursuant to a merger
agreement, dated as of December 20, 2006, entered into by and
between Integrated Alarm Services Group, Inc. (“ IASG
”), the Company and Tara Acquisition Corp. (the “
Merger Agreement ”), IASG has become a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the Company, with shareholders of IASG receiving
Common Shares (the “ Merger ”); and
WHEREAS, in connection with the
Merger the Company and each of the Stockholders desire to amend and
restate the Original Stockholders Agreement.
NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of
the premises and of the mutual covenants and agreements herein
contained, the parties hereto hereby agree to amend and restate the
Original Stockholders Agreement as follows:
ARTICLE
I
DEFINITIONS
Section 1.1
Definitions (a) As used in this Agreement,
the following capitalized terms shall have the following
meanings:
Acquisition Designees
: As defined in Section 2.1(a)(i)
herein.
Affiliate : When used with respect to a specified
Person, another Person that either directly or indirectly, through
one or more intermediaries, Controls, or is Controlled by, or is
under common Control with, the Person specified.
Board of Directors
: The board of directors of
the Company.
Business Day
: A day other than a Saturday,
Sunday, federal or New York State holiday or other day on which
commercial banks in New York City are authorized or required by law
to close.
Cash Equivalents
: Any of the
following:
(1)
securities issued or directly and
fully guaranteed or insured by the United States Government or any
agency or instrumentality of the United States ( provided
that the full faith and credit of the United States is pledged in
support thereof), having maturities of not more than one year from
the date of acquisition;
(2)
marketable general obligations
issued by any state of the United States of America or any
political subdivision of any such state or any public
instrumentality thereof maturing within one year from the date of
acquisition of the United States ( provided that the full
faith and credit of the United States is pledged in support
thereof) and, at the time of acquisition, having a credit rating of
“A” or better from either Standard & Poor’s
Ratings Services or Moody’s Investors Service,
Inc.;
(3)
certificates of deposit, time
deposits, eurodollar time deposits, overnight bank deposits or
bankers’ acceptances having maturities of not more than one
year from the date of acquisition thereof issued by any commercial
bank the long-term debt of which is rated at the time of
acquisition thereof at least “A” or the equivalent
thereof by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, or
“A” or the equivalent thereof by Moody’s
Investors Service, Inc., and having combined capital and surplus in
excess of $500 million; or
(4)
commercial paper rated at the time
of acquisition thereof at least “A-2” or the equivalent
thereof by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services or
“P-2” or the equivalent thereof by Moody’s
Investors Service, Inc., or carrying an equivalent rating by a
nationally recognized rating agency, if both of the two named
rating agencies cease publishing ratings of investments, and in any
case maturing within one year after the date of acquisition
thereof.
Common Shares
: The shares of common stock,
$0.01 par value per share, of the Company.
Control : The possession, direct or indirect, of the
power to direct or cause the direction of the management and
policies of a Person, whether through the ownership of voting
securities, by contract or otherwise.
Excluded Securities
: As defined in Section 5.2
herein.
Independent Person
: A person (x) who is not: (i) a
holder of more than 5% of the outstanding Common Shares, or an
officer, employee or partner of the Company; (ii) a creditor,
customer, supplier or other person who derives more than 10% of its
purchases or revenues from its activities with the Company; (iii) a
member of the immediate family of any such stockholder, officer,
employee, partner, creditor, customer, supplier or other person and
(y) who does not
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have a relationship with the Company
that may interfere with his exercise of independence from
management and the Company.
Marketable Securities
: securities that are traded on an
established securities exchange, reported through an established
over-the-counter trading system or otherwise traded
over-the-counter.
Permitted Transfer
: As defined in Section
3.2.
Permitted Transferee
: As defined in Section
3.2.
Person : Any individual, partnership, limited
liability company, joint venture, syndicate, sole proprietorship,
company or corporation, unincorporated association, trust, trustee,
executor, administrator or other legal personal representative,
regulatory body or agency, government or governmental agency,
authority or entity however designated or constituted.
POI Acquisition
: As defined in the
recitals.
Protection One
Entities : The
Company and its Subsidiaries.
QMFL : As defined in the recitals.
QDRF : As defined in the recitals.
QDRF Designee
: As defined in Section 2.1(a)(ii)
herein.
Registered Sale
: A sale of Common Shares effected
pursuant to an effective registration statement under the
Securities Act in accordance with the Registration Rights
Agreement.
Registration Rights
Agreement : The
registration rights agreement dated as of February 8, 2005 by and
among POI Acquisition, QMFL and the Company.
Rule 144 Sale
: A sale of Common Shares pursuant
to Rule 144 promulgated under the Securities Act (or any similar
rule then in effect).
SEC : The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or
its successor.
Securities Act
: The U.S. Securities Act of 1933,
as amended from time to time and the rules and regulations
promulgated thereunder.
Stockholder Designee
: Any of the Acquisition Designees
or the QDRF Designee.
Subsidiary
: An entity in respect of which
another entity owns, directly or indirectly, at least a majority of
the securities entitled to vote for the election of directors or
the members of a similar governing body.
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Trigger Event
: The Company ceasing to qualify as
a “controlled company” for purposes of the applicable
standards of the securities exchange on which the Common Shares are
listed.
(b)
When used in this Agreement, the term “including” shall
be deemed to mean “including, without limitation”. The
words “hereof,” “herein” and
“hereunder” and words of similar import when used in
this Agreement shall refer to this Agreement as a whole and not to
any particular provision of this Agreement, and Article and Section
references are to this Agreement unless otherwise specified.
The meanings given to terms defined herein shall be equally
applicable to both the singular and plural forms of such
terms.
ARTICLE
II
CORPORATE
GOVERNANCE
Section 2.1
Board of Directors Representation . (a)
Effective as of the date hereof, the Stockholders
and the Company shall use their reasonable best efforts to cause
the Board of Directors to be comprised of nine directors of
whom:
(i)
three shall be designated by POI
Acquisition (the “ Acquisition Designees
”);
(ii)
two shall be designated by QDRF
(the “ QDRF Designees ”);
(iii)
two shall be designated pursuant
to the Merger Agreement for a period of not less than two years
from the date hereof;
(iv)
one shall be Richard Ginsburg,
president and chief executive officer of the Company;
and
(iv)
one shall be an Independent Person
selected by a majority of the other directors, which person shall
initially be Robert J. McGuire.
(b)
At such time as POI Acquisition shall cease to own Common Shares in
an amount equal to at least 25% of the Common Shares issued and
outstanding as of the effective date hereof, POI Acquisition shall
have the right to designate two Acquisition Designees rather than
three Acquisition Designees pursuant to Section 2.1(a) above. At
such time as POI Acquisition shall cease to own Common Shares in an
amount equal to at least 15% of the Common Shares issued and
outstanding as of the effective date hereof, POI Acquisition shall
have the right to designate one Acquisition Designee rather than
two Acquisition Designees pursuant to Section 2.1(a) above. At such
time as POI Acquisition shall cease to own Common Shares in an
amount equal to at least 10% of the Common Shares issued and
outstanding as of the effective date hereof, POI Acquisition shall
cease to have the right to designate a director to the Board of
Directors pursuant to Section 2.1(a) above. Upon each of the
triggering events set forth in this Section 2.1(b) above, POI
Acquisition shall promptly cause one of its Acquisition Designees
to resign from the Board of Directors and all committees thereof.
Upon any such resignation, the Stockholders will use their
reasonable best efforts to cause the directors
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remaining in
office to either decrease the size of the Board of Directors to
eliminate such vacancy or cause the vacancy created thereby to be
filled by a designee selected by a majority of the directors
remaining in office.
(c)
At such time as QDRF shall cease to own Common Shares in an amount
equal to at least 15% of the Common Shares issued and outstanding
as of the effective date hereof, QDRF shall have the right to
designate one QDRF Designee to the Board of Directors rather than
two QDRF Designees pursuant to Section 2.1(a) above. At such time
as QDRF shall cease to own Common Shares in an amount equal to at
least 10% of the Common Shares issued and outstanding as of the
effective date hereof, QDRF shall cease to have the right to
designate a director to the Board of Directors pursuant to Section
2.1(a) above. Upon each of the triggering events set forth in this
Section 2.1(c) above, QDRF shall promptly cause one of its QDRF
Designees to resign from the Board of Directors and all committees
thereof. Upon any such resignation, the Stockholders will use their
reasonable best efforts to cause the directors remaining in office
to either decrease the size of the Board of Directors to eliminate
such vacancy or cause the vacancy created thereby to be filled by a
designee selected by a majority of the directors remaining in
office.
(d)
At such time as Mr. Ginsburg ceases to be the chief executive
officer of the Company, he shall no longer be entitled to serve as
a director pursuant to Section 2.1(a) above. Upon any such
resignation, the Stockholders will use their reasonable best
efforts to cause the directors remaining in office to either
decrease the size of the Board of Directors to eliminate such
vacancy or cause the vacancy created thereby to be filled by a
designee selected by a majority of the directors remaining in
office.
(e)
Each Stockholder agrees to vote, or act by written consent with
respect to, any Common Shares owned directly or indirectly by it,
at each annual or special meeting of stockholders of the Company at
which directors are to be elected or to take all actions by written
consent in lieu of any such meeting as are necessary, and the
Company shall use its reasonable best efforts to take all
appropriate actions as are necessary, to cause the Board of
Directors to be comprised of the number and type of directors
specified in Section 2.1(a). In conjunction with a Trigger Event
and effective immediately prior to the consummation thereof, the
Stockholders and the Company shall take all action necessary and
appropriate to reconstitute the size and composition of the Board
of Directors in accordance with the listing rules of the applicable
securities exchange; provided , however , that in the
case of any such reconstitution of the Board of Directors, POI
Acquisition shall remain entitled pursuant to Section 2.1(a) to
designate the Acquisition Designees (subject to Section 2.1(b)),
QDRF shall remain entitled to designate the QDRF Designee (subject
to Section 2.1(c)), Mr. Ginsburg shall remain entitled to serve as
a director (subject to Section 2.1(d)) and the Company shall
continue to perform its obligations under the Merger Agreement with
respect to directors designated thereunder.
(f)
Until such time as POI Acquisition ceases to own Common Shares in
an amount equal to at least 40% of the Common Shares issued and
outstanding as of the effective date hereof, POI Acquisition shall
have the right, exercisable at any time upon delivery of written
notice to QDRF and the Company, to elect to cause the Board of
Directors to be increased to include two additional directors and
to designate such directors, and shall similarly have the right to
designate one additional director to the extent that POI
Acquisition owns
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Common Shares in
an amount equal to at least 35% (but less than 40%) of the Common
Shares issued and outstanding as of the effective date hereof (the
“ Acquisition Election ”). Upon making the
Acquisition Election, the Stockholders (and their respective
Stockholder Designees) and the Company shall use their reasonable
best efforts to take all appropriate action to cause the size of
the Board of Directors to be increased to include the director(s)
designated by POI Acquisition. Upon making the Acquisition
Election, (i) the number of Acquisition Designees set forth in
Section 2.1(a)(i) shall be increased by the number of Acquisition
Designees so designated and (ii) at such time as POI Acquisition
shall cease to own the requisite percentage of Common Shares issued
and outstanding to designate one or more directors pursuant to this
Section 2.1(f), POI Acquisition shall promptly cause such
Acquisition Designee(s) to resign from the Board of Directors and
all committees thereof. Upon any such resignation, the Stockholders
will use their reasonable best efforts to cause the directors
remaining in office to either decrease the size of the Board of
Directors to eliminate such vacancy or cause the vacancy created
thereby to be filled by a designee selected by a majority of the
directors remaining in office.
(g)
If any Stockholder entitled to designate directors hereunder
requests in writing that any of its designees be removed as a
director, the other Stockholder shall vote, or act by written
consent with respect to, all Common Shares owned directly or
indirectly by such other Stockholder and otherwise take or cause to
be taken all actions necessary to remove such director designated
by such Stockholder. Unless a Stockholder shall otherwise request
in writing, no other Stockholder shall take any action to cause the
removal of any directors designated by such Stockholder. In the
event that a vacancy is created at any time by the death,
disability, retirement, resignation or removal (with or without
cause) of any director designated by a Stockholder, so long as such
Stockholder has the right to designate a replacement designee at
such time, the Company and the other Stockholder shall use their
reasonable best efforts to take all appropriate action necessary to
cause the vacancy created thereby to be filled by the replacement
designated by such Stockholder.
(h)
POI Acquisition and QDRF each shall be entitled to designate an
employee, director or officer of such entity or its Affiliates to
serve as a nonvoting observer to the Board of Directors (an “
Observer ”) at any time that such entity owns at least
5% of the outstanding Common Shares. The Observer shall be
permitted to attend all meetings of the Board of Directors. The
Company shall provide the Observer, in the same manner as provided
to directors, notice of such meetings and copies of all materials,
financial or otherwise, which the Company provides to its
directors; provided , however , that the Company may
exclude the Observer from access to any materials or from any
meeting, or any portion of the foregoing, if the Company reasonably
believes upon advice of counsel that such exclusion is reasonably
necessary to preserve the attorney-client privilege, to protect
confidential or proprietary information or for other similar
reasons.
(i)
The parties hereto acknowledge and agree that designation of a
director as a Stockholder Designee does not in itself preclude such
director from being deemed “independent” for purposes
of applicable rules and regulations of the United States Securities
and Exchange Commission or the securities exchange upon which the
Common Shares are listed (each such qualifying director, an “
Independent Designee ”).
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(j)
For purposes of this Agreement, a Stockholder shall be deemed to
own its proportional interest of any Common Shares held by a Person
beneficially owned by such Stockholder (determined based on such
Stockholder’s pro rata direct or indirect equity interest in
such Person).
(k)
The Company shall reimburse each Stockholder Designee and each
Observer for their reasonable out-of-pocket expenses incurred by
them for the purpose of attending meetings of the Board of
Directors, the board of directors of any Subsidiary of the Company
or the respective committees thereof.
Section
2.2 Bylaws . (a)
At the first meeting of the Board of Directors
following the date of this Agreement, the bylaws of the Company
shall be amended to provide that (i) until such time as POI
Acquisition ceases to own Common Shares in an amount equal to at
least 20% of the Common Shares issued and outstanding as of the
effective date hereof, at least one of the Acquisition Designees
(other than an Independent Designee) shall be required to be
present to constitute a quorum of the Board of Directors and (ii)
until such time as QDRF ceases to own Common Shares in an amount
equal to at least 20% of the Common Shares issued and outstanding
as of the effective date hereof, at least one of the QDRF Designees
(other than an Independent Designee) shall be required to be
present to constitute a quorum of the Board of Directors;
provided , however , that (x) any of the Stockholders
may waive such right for any given meeting of the Board of
Directors and (y) none of the Stockholders may use such provision
in bad faith to avoid the taking of any action by the Board of
Directors.
(b)
If and for so long as POI Acquisition has the rights described in
Section 2.2(a)(i) above neither the Company nor any other
Stockholder shall, without the prior written consent of POI
Acquisition, take any action to amend the bylaws of the Company in
any manner that would impair POI Acquisition’s rights
hereunder. If and for so long as QDRF has the rights
described in Section 2.2(a)(ii) above neither the Company nor any
other Stockholder shall, without the prior written consent of QDRF,
take any action to amend the bylaws of the Company in any manner
that would impair QDRF’s rights hereunder.
Section
2.3. Information and Inspection Rights
. The Company shall furnish to each Stockholder that,
together with its Affiliates, owns at least 5% of the outstanding
Common Shares such information regarding the business, affairs,
prospects and financial condition of the Company and its
Subsidiaries as such Stockholder may reasonably request and shall
permit such Stockholder or any of its designated representatives to
examine the books and records of the Company and its Subsidiaries
(and to make copies thereof and extracts therefrom), and to inspect
their respective facilities.
ARTICLE
III
TRANSFERS
Section 3.1
Transfer Restrictions . (a) Subject
to compliance with Sections 3.3 and 3.4, QDRF may directly or
indirectly offer, transfer, sell, assign, pledge or otherwise
dispose of any economic, voting or other rights in or to (any such
act, a “ transfer ”) all or a portion of
its
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Common Shares at any time (i) in a
Permitted Transfer, (ii) in a transfer pursuant to Sections 4.2 or
4.3 or (iii) subject to compliance with Section 4.1, in any other
transfer.
(b)
Subject to compliance with Sections 3.3 and 3.4, POI Acquisition
may transfer all or a portion of its Common Shares at any
time (i)
in a Permitted Transfer or (ii) subject to compliance with Section
4.2