Scientific holders (corz) are holding out to reject Coreweave’s (CRWV) merger, says Jefferies
Investment Bank Jefferies said Core Scientific (CORZ) shareholders appeared to reject the proposed merger with Coreweave (CRWV) when they voted on October 30, as Corz shares were about 18% above the implied offer price.
The premium suggests investors see the deal as undervaluing core scientific, and unless Coreweave’s stock rallies sharply, Jefferies expects no outcome, the bank said in a report Tuesday.
Proxy Advisor ISS and Major Shareholder Two Seas Capital encouraged investors to reject the dealciting valuation concerns and structural issues.
Valuing basic science remains complex. Suitable for land banks and bitcoin Mining operations, Corz is trading roughly in line with Applied Digital (APLD), well below Cipher Mining (CIFR), and above Terawulf (Wulf), showing mixed signals on whether it’s cheap or fully valued, analysts Jonathan Petersen and Jan Aygul wrote.
Analysts have argued that even if the deal collapses, basic science is well positioned to create value on its own. With 305 megawatts (MW) of available IT load, the company can lease capacity to coreweave or attract a new hyperscale or “neocloud” tenant, confirming its pivot to high-performance computing.
Additional leases, power expansions or new site acquisitions could lift its valuation, and Jefferies said a future move to a REIT model could unlock further upside.
However, the report warned that a failed vote could complicate Core Scientific’s relationship with Coreweave, potentially making new tenants reluctant to commit. However, Coreweave’s growing demand for GPU capacity could still bring the companies back to the table.
Reflecting its confidence in the basic scientific prospects, the bank’s analyst raised their target price to $ 24 from $ 22.
Basic Science shares were 1.7% higher in early trading, around $20.44.
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