Company: CIO
Filing Date: 2025-09-08
Form Type: DEFM14A
Source: 0001193125-25-198418
Chunk: 40

Company: City Office REIT, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-09-08
Form: DEFM14A
Chunk 40
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holders to a date not more than 120 days after the original record date (subject to certain restrictions in the Merger Agreement,
including that the Special Meeting generally may not be held, without the Parent’s consent, on a date that is more than 10 days after the date on which the Special Meeting was originally scheduled).

27

THE MERGER

General Description of the Merger

Under the terms of the Merger Agreement, affiliates of Morning Calm and Elliott will acquire us and our subsidiaries, through the merger of us with and into
Merger Sub, with Merger Sub continuing as the Surviving Entity.

Background of the Merger

The following chronology summarizes the key meetings and events that led to the signing of the Merger Agreement. The following chronology does not purport to catalogue every conversation among the Board, members of our management or our representatives and other parties.

The Board and the
Company’s senior management regularly review our strategies, performance and objectives in light of the then-current business, economic and capital markets environments, as well as trends and developments in the office REIT sector and real
estate industry more generally. As part of these reviews, the Board and the Company’s senior management have periodically considered various potential strategic and financial initiatives, all with the goal of maximizing stockholder value. In
connection therewith, the Board and the Company’s senior management routinely evaluate, analyze and discuss various opportunities and challenges that we face as a public company within our sector. As a result of such internal reviews, on
April 26, 2023, the Board retained JLL Securities and Raymond James (together with JLL Securities, the “Financial Advisors”) to assist in its review of strategic alternatives available to the Company, including but not limited to a
potential merger with another REIT, a joint venture transaction, private investment in public equity financing or other alternative financing transactions, asset or portfolio sales, a liquidation strategy, a take-private transaction or maintaining
the status quo as a publicly-traded company (each, a “Strategic Alternative”).

From April 2023 through December 2024, with the advice and
assistance of representatives of each of the Financial Advisors, the Board and the Company’s senior management evaluated a number of Strategic Alternatives with the ultimate goal of maximizing stockholder value. During this period, the Company
and representatives of its Financial Advisors engaged in discussions and negotiations with a group of two investors who worked diligently to underwrite a potential take-private transaction (the group hereinafter