About five months after a proxy battle that ousted its management and revamped its board of directors, home shopping giant ValueVision Media has changed its name to Evine Live, in an effort to better reflect its transformation into a comprehensive digital commerce company.
ValueVision made the announcement in conjunction with releasing with its third quarter earnings results on Nov. 18. As part of the transition, the company changed its trading symbol on the NASDAQ Exchange from VVTV to EVLV on Nov. 20.
The company said the name change is part of the ongoing effort to transform Evine Live into a true digital commerce company.
After years of sluggish performance, ValueVision Media emerged in June from a proxy fight that saw it jettison its top management and most of its board in favor of a slate of directors with varied and vast experience in retail, television production and cable. CEO Mark Bozek, a 20-year veteran of the home-shopping wars — he started as an executive at QVC in 1994 — and a former CEO of HSN, joined a slate of high-profile directors put forth by activist investor The Clinton Group to shake up the company.
According to a company statement, the "Es" that bookend the Evine Live brand represent the ease, exclusivity and energy of what it calls a new entertaining consumer experience. The inclusion of the word "Live" is about real-time impulses to act and interact on all digital platforms.
ValueVision acquired the Evine brand as part of a $1 million stock deal to acquire Dollars Per Minute, a Huntington, N.Y. based merchandising and entertainment company created by Bozek and Russell Nuce. Evine said it has named Nuce as its new chief strategy officer.
According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Nuce will receive annual compensation of about $375,000, a signing bonus of $75,000 and a one-time bonus of $176,000. Bozek receives total annual compensation of about $1.3 million.
As part of the Dollars Per Minute transaction, former ValueVision independent board member Thom Beers, CEO of FremantleMedia North America, received stock worth $532,867 as payment for certain convertible bridge notes he held in the company.
“As a result of the consummation of the transaction, the company’s board of directors has determined that Mr. Beers will no longer serve as an independent director,” Evine said in an SEC filing, “…and at this time, will no longer be a member of the company’s corporate governance and nominating committee.”
The rebranding is in line with what The Clinton Group had promised during their fight for control of ValueVision -- transforming what has been a distant third in the homme shopping wars (behnd QVC Group and HSN) into a modern, streamlined and nimble competitor.
"On the heels of a solid third quarter, we strongly believe definitive change and innovation are necessary to build on our recent momentum and drive the company to the next level," Bozek said in a statement. "We believe that fully embracing this new transformation will enable Evine Live to forge new paths and new relationships that allow us to be far more competitive, far more creative, and far more disruptive on all our platforms. Evine Live has the opportunity to be fearless in our strategies to transform the worlds of retail and entertainment while, at the same time, driving greater consumer engagement."
The company expects to transition from doing business as "ShopHQ" to "Evine Live" over the coming months, with the complete rebranding planned to take place first half of 2015. In the coming months, the company intends to introduce new proprietary brands from the worlds of fashion, beauty, jewelry, home and fitness.
"The new approach should enable us to build a stronger foundation for long-term growth," Bozek added in a statement.
