Starboard Value Urges Wausau Paper To Explore A Sale - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Starboard Value LP said that it believes Wausau Paper Corp. (WPP) is at a Crossroads with two Fundamental Choices: either immediately replace management and improve execution to position the company for standalone success, or explore a sale of the company to a financial or strategic buyer at a premium.

In a letter to the company's Board of Directors, Starboard Value LP, the largest shareholder of Wausau Paper with approximately 15.2% of the outstanding common stock of the Company, noted that it believes both options are feasible and should be fully explored to determine which would result in the best risk-adjusted return for shareholders.

Starboard believes that Wausau is deeply undervalued and that significant opportunities exist for value creation based on actions within the control of management and the Company's board of directors.

Starboard noted that it has serious concerns with Wausau's prolonged underperformance under the direction of the current management team and Board. Despite Starboard efforts over the past two-and-a-half years to recommend specific actions to enhance shareholder value and to place four independent directors on the Board through two separate settlement agreements, Wausau's operations have continued to dramatically underperform.

Although there has already been some change on the Board, Starboard believe the Company's continued underperformance is directly tied to the fact that Board and management leadership remain largely unchanged.

Starboard also said it has nominated a slate of three candidates for election to the Wausau Board at the Company's 2014 Annual Meeting. Starboard's director nominees include: Cynthia T. Jamison, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tractor Supply Company; Jeffrey C. Smith, co-Founder and CEO of Starboard; and Russell C. Taylor, Former President and CEO of Cellu Tissue Holdings, Inc.