WISeKey Sells Its 51% Stake In Arago For €25.5M; Shares Pop

WISeKey International Holding WKEY sold its 51% stake in arago, a German Artificial Intelligence Platform company, back to a German consortium of investors led by arago's founder through his investment company, OGARA GmbH, for €25.5 million.
The purchase price was over five times the initial investment made by WISeKey to acquire its 51% stake.
WISeKey CFO Peter Ward said, "The immediate benefit to WISeKey will be a significant reduction in our cash burn, whilst providing us with an influx of funds to support future business development in the areas of Cybersecurity, IoT, and NFT technologies. This sale will also reduce our operational losses and enable us to move faster towards profitability."
After the sale, all WISeKey options given to Hans-Christian Boos to exchange his remaining 49% in arago representing 12.3 million shares will be canceled and returned to WISeKey.
Hans-Christian Boos will also step down as a board member of WISeKey.
Price Action: WKEY shares traded higher by 5.04% at $2.09 on the last check Monday.