American Ocean Minerals Corporation ("AOMC") and Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMEX) ("Odyssey") today announced they have entered into a definitive merger agreement to combine their businesses and create a leading deep-sea critical minerals research and resource extraction platform (the "Transaction").

The Transaction values the combined company at approximately $1 billion and includes a private placement of over $150 million from prominent institutional and strategic investors, as well as a $75 million pre-public financing completed in February by AOMC.