Three months ago, Forward Industries went public with a proposal to buy SkyAI. SkyAI's board said nothing, and the offer expired. On September 15, Forward went public again.
The updated proposal carries a 50% premium to SkyAI's closing price on September 14. Each SkyAI share would convert at a fixed ratio of 0.306 Forward shares, implying $2.13 per SkyAI share against SkyAI's close of $1.42 that day. Unlike the first approach — an all-stock offer that Forward disclosed in a June Globe Newswire release — this one lets SkyAI shareholders choose cash, Forward stock, or a mix of both. The ratio is fixed and does not adjust if either company's stock moves, so the real value of a stock election could differ from what the implied price is today.
Shares of Forward closed 24.19% higher at $7.70 after the filing, on dollar volume of about $49 million.
For SkyAI shareholders, the 50% premium is a concrete number. The catch is that it is not a firm offer. The proposal is non-binding and depends on due diligence, a signed merger agreement, regulatory clearance, and a vote of SkyAI's own shareholders. Any of those could fail, and none has started, because SkyAI's board has not agreed to engage.
That refusal to engage is what makes the September 15 filing significant. Forward's chief investment officer, Ryan Navi, said in the release: "SkyAI's stockholders have waited long enough. We're ready to move quickly — the next step is for the Board to engage." Publishing an offer a board has not agreed to negotiate is one way to apply pressure directly on the shareholders who would vote on any eventual deal.
Forward has set a response deadline of 5:00 p.m. Eastern on September 25. The June offer also had a deadline, and it passed without a reply.
The filing does not explain why a Solana blockchain treasury company is pursuing an AI firm, what SkyAI generates in revenue, or what Forward intends to do with it if the acquisition closes. Both companies are listed on Nasdaq, and the combined entity would sit across two sectors — Solana-focused crypto assets and AI — without a stated rationale for why those belong together.
What happens if SkyAI's board goes quiet again, Forward has not said.