VANCOUVER, CANADA--(Marketwire - June 21, 2010) -
All amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.
Versatile Systems Inc. (TSX VENTURE:VV)(AIM:VVS), announces that AlessandroBenedetti, Bertrand des Pallieres, John Hardy and Fraser Atkinson have beenelected to the Board of Directors of Equus Total Return, Inc. which is a publiccompany trading on the NYSE under the symbol EQS (the "Fund").
In 2009 Versatile founded Mobiquity Investments Limited ("Mobiquity") as asubsidiary of Versatile, to engage in private equity activities. "The corestrength of our Board of Directors, in particular Alessandro Benedetti andBertrand Des Pallieres, is in banking and private equity activities," said JohnHardy, Chairman and CEO of Versatile. "For that reason we have undertaken theseactivities. As we move forward, this diversification should be for the benefitof Versatile's shareholders and should mitigate the effects of the currentslowdown in technology spending."
Mobiquity began acquiring shares of the Fund in late September 2009, and bythe end of February 2010 had accumulated 822,031 shares of the Fund. CurrentlyMobiquity is the single largest shareholder of the Fund, holding 9.28%. In earlyJanuary 2010 Mobiquity approached the Fund's Board of Directors seekingrepresentation on the Board. A majority of the Fund's Board of Directors agreedwith Mobiquity's request, and on April 13, 2010, the Fund filed a definitiveProxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to, among otherthings, solicit shareholders of the Fund to vote in favor of the Nominees inconnection with the Fund's 2010 Annual Meeting, which was held on May 12,2010.
On April 14, 2010 Mobiquity filed a Schedule 13D/A (Amendment No. 1) with theSecurities and Exchange Commission and reported that the Fund had agreed tonominate Alessandro Benedetti, Bertrand des Pallieres, John Hardy and FraserAtkinson, as directors of the Fund (the "Nominees") and to support the electionof the Nominees at the Fund's Annual Meeting. Shortly thereafter Sam Douglass,then a Director of Equus and one of the founders of the Fund, who disagreed withthe majority's decision, filed a Proxy nominating an alternative slate ofDirectors, triggering a lengthy Proxy battle.
On May 20, 2010 the Inspector of Elections who attended the Annual Meeting ofthe Fund certified that Alessandro Benedetti, Bertrand des Pallieres, John Hardyand Fraser Atkinson, had been elected to the Board of Directors of Equus.
On June 9, 2010 the Fund announced that John Hardy had been appointed theExecutive Chairman of the Fund, and that Fraser Atkinson had been appointedChairman of the Fund's Audit Committee.
"Our goal is to effect positive change at the Fund for the benefit of all theFund's shareholders," said John Hardy, Chairman and CEO of Versatile.