B. Riley Financial issued a statement in response to the Delaware Chancery Court's decision that Rent-A-Center Inc.'s termination of its Merger Agreement with affiliates of Vintage Capital Management, LLC ("Vintage") was valid.

"We are disappointed with the Court's decision to not compel Rent-A-Center to complete the merger with Vintage. We committed our support for the deal in June due to Rent-A-Center's strong fundamentals and we recognized the business could be turned around by implementing a disciplined strategy," said Bryant Riley, Chairman and Co-CEO, B. Riley Financial. "Although B. Riley is not a party to the Merger Agreement, we secured the necessary debt and equity financing to fund the transaction months before Rent-A-Center elected to cancel the merger. We upheld our client commitments in support of closing the deal."

The Court reserved judgment on the reverse breakup fee, pending supplemental briefing. B. Riley maintains that Rent-A-Center's position with respect to the reverse breakup fee does not have merit.