Note 16 - Related Party Transactions

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2012

Related Party Transactions Disclosure [Text Block]

16.     Related Party Transactions

As disclosed in Note 3, pursuant to the terms of the Share Purchase Agreement, the Company acquired all of the capital stock of SWH for an acquisition price aggregating $62.7 million. The aggregate acquisition price consisted of the issuance of 2,027,500 shares of the Company’s common stock (valued at $27 per share, the closing price on May 30, 2012) and cash of $7.9 million. Affiliates of Steel Partners Holdings L.P. (“Steel Partners”) owned approximately 40% of the Company’s outstanding common stock and 85% of BNS on May 31, 2012. The Company appointed a special committee (the “Special Committee”) comprised solely of independent directors to consider and negotiate the transaction, as did BNS, because of the interest of Steel Partners in each company. The Special Committee, with the assistance of its independent financial advisor, considered a number of factors in negotiating the acquisition price, including, without limitation, the fairness opinion from its financial advisor.

As a result of the acquisition, Steel Partners beneficially owns approximately 51.1% of the Company’s outstanding common stock as of June 30, 2012. Jack L. Howard, John J. Quicke, and Warren G. Lichtenstein are directors of the Company and each such person is deemed to be an affiliate of Steel Partners under the rules of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Each of the three directors is compensated with cash compensation and equity awards or equity-based awards in amounts that are consistent with the Company’s Non-employee Director Compensation Policy. In addition, Mr. Quicke currently serves as the Interim President and CEO of the Company and is compensated $30,000 per month in connection with this role, which is in addition to the compensation he receives as a non-employee Board member. Mr. Quicke also serves as the CEO of other affiliates of Steel Partners.

Pursuant to a management services agreement between the Company and SP Corporate Services LLC (“SP Corporate”), the Company used various services of SP Corporate aggregating $0.3 million and $0.5 million during the three-month and six-month periods ended June 30, 2012, respectively. SP Corporate is an affiliate of Steel Partners.