Soapstone Networks announced yesterday that its Board of Directors has unanimously approved a plan of dissolution and liquidation of the Company.

We added SOAP to the Valuehuntr Portfolio on March 9, 2009, after the company announced it was seeking strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value. At the time, the company had nearly $6.0/share in cash, but trading at a market cap of $2.8/share.

As part of the decision to liquidate, SOAP has ceased the development and marketing of the Soapstone Provider Network Controller (PNC) product and has reduced its workforce by 50 to a total of 14 employees. Moreover, if the Company’s stockholders approve the Plan of Liquidation, the Company intends to file a certificate of dissolution, delist its shares from NASDAQ, sell and monetize its non-cash assets, satisfy or settle its remaining liabilities and obligations, including any contingent liabilities and claims, terminate its remaining employees throughout the wind down period, and make one or more distributions to its stockholders of cash available for distribution.

SOAP also announced that its Board has unanimously approved an extraordinary cash dividend of $3.75 per share, provided that the Board may adjust such amount at a later date to ensure there is remaining cash to satisfy potential liabilities. Such dividend will be payable after the stockholder meeting at which the Plan of Liquidation is approved by the Company’s stockholders and in connection with the filing of a Certificate of Dissolution with the Delaware Secretary of State.

The Company has analyzed its liquidation value and currently estimates that the amount of subsequent distributions to stockholders will range from $0.25 to $0.75 per share, for a total distribution, including the extraordinary cash dividend, of between $4.00 and $4.50 per share. The amount of these distributions, however, may vary substantially from these estimates based on the resolution of outstanding known and contingent liabilities and the possible assertion of claims that are currently unknown to the Company. If, prior to its dissolution, the Company receives an offer for a transaction that will, in the view of the Board, provide superior value to stockholders than the value of the estimated distributions under the Plan, taking into account all factors that could affect valuation, including timing and certainty of payment or closing, credit market risks, proposed terms and other factors, the Plan of Liquidation and the dissolution could be abandoned in favor of such a transaction.

The Board made this decision after completing an exhaustive evaluation of various strategic alternatives available to the Company for enhancing stockholder value, including but not limited to, continued execution of the Company’s business plan, the payment of a cash dividend to the Company’s stockholders, a repurchase by the Company of shares of its capital stock, the sale or spin off of Company assets, partnering or other collaboration agreements, a merger, sale or liquidation of, or acquisition by, the Company or other strategic transaction. The Company and its external advisors, including its financial advisor Morgan Stanley & Co. Incorporated, devoted substantial time and effort in identifying potential buyers or strategic partners and entered into negotiations with several potential partners; however, that process did not yield a potential transaction which the Board viewed as reasonably likely to provide greater realizable value to its stockholders than the complete dissolution and liquidation of the Company in accordance with the Plan of Liquidation.