Seth Gilbert, 07-21-2008
Lawyers rarely take tort law cases to trial. By some measures more than 90% of these cases are settled outside of judge or jury. According to the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, of 98k such cases in 2002 and 2003, only 2% were decided at trial. The rationale is that it is usually safer and less expensive to settle with a sure thing than risk the uncertainty and cost of trial. Apparently, proxy fights with activist shareholders share that in common. Despite increasing momentum, and the recent pledged support of a major shareholder, Yahoo today agreed to settle their proxy fight for board control with Carl Icahn.
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Seth Gilbert, 07-14-2008
Midway into the month, the July award for best corporate use of the media has been locked up. In a rare tie, the trophy goes jointly to Microsoft and Carl Icahn. Together, working with press releases, public letters and carefully worded position statements, the two have effectively served their dual purpose of destabilizing Yahoo and advancing their efforts to acquire the company (or its assets) against the wishes of its management.
Looking at the Award Winning Performances:
It wasn’t too long ago that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had said Microsoft’s pursuit was over; that they had “moved on.” At the end of June, in an interview with Tom Brokaw to discuss his retirement, Bill Gates confirmed he didn’t think a Microsoft-Yahoo combination would happen either.
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Seth Gilbert, 07-11-2008
Wrapping up a week where tech news was largely dominated by iPhone related hype, and financial news committed to turbulent markets, three of the video game industries top ten publishers (and arguably top 5 depending on the method of ranking) moved ahead with acquisition related activities. Leading the way, Activision and Vivendi games completed their merger. Additionally, Electronic Arts made a small forward step in their battle to acquire Take Two Interactive and French publisher, Ubisoft, fortified their film industry foundation with the purchase of a special effects shop.
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Seth Gilbert, 07-2-2008
The proposed marriage of Blockbuster and Circuit City always seemed wrong; like two actors that peaked early, fell from favor and were looking for mutual salvation in a questionable, improbable union. It didn’t make sense. It didn’t feel right. The common ground seemed to be troubles not opportunities. Given that, the odds of one company salvaging the other, of Blockbuster resuscitating the struggling business of Circuit City, seemed small. Luckily for Blockbuster shareholders, CEO Jim Keyes reached the same conclusion before he walked the company into the Elvis Wedding Chapel and said “I Do.”
Wednesday, Blockbuster officially withdrew its $1.35billion ($6 to $8/share) offer. All it took was a close inspection of Circuit City’s books.
The review process began in May Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 06-23-2008
Through nearly the first 180 days, 2008 has been a busy year for M&A activity . Today, adding to the year’s tally, movie ticketing service Fandango announced the acquisition of Movies.com from Disney.
Under the prior name mrshowbiz.com, Movies.com was launched in 2000 to provide movie summaries, facts and celebrity info. In May, the site drew 1.9m unique visitors.
Fandango, which was bought by Comcast in April 2007, provides online ticket sales for about 15,000 movie screens around the U.S.. The site drew approximately 6.3m unique visitors in May.
The company currently splits its revenue between advertising income and Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 06-20-2008
When Microsoft set out to buy Yahoo, they acknowledged part of the interest was Yahoo’s talented staff. Now out of it and sitting on the sidelines, seeing a shareholder revolt, and masses of that talent walking out, some Microsoft execs might be singing along to Garth Brooks “Unanswered Prayers” and counting blessings for the deal that wasn’t.
Over the past few days, a host of high profile Yahoo execs have pulled the ripcord, hit the eject button, or to mix metaphors even more, exited stage left.
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Seth Gilbert, 06-18-2008
With all the back and forth over the last five months, keeping track of Electronic Art’s attempt to acquire Take Two has gotten confusing. At times, it seems like just about anyone you ask is bound to have a different take, or different facts to relay: "The offer is too low and undervalues the company." "It’s just a matter of time." "EA will have to up their offer to $28 to $30." "it’s a stalemate."
In March, we put together a "Deal Diary" to track things. That first effort rapidly became outdated with all the twists and turns. An update was long overdue, so here, covering all the gritty details, even historical stock prices, is the remake. All in one place: The Exhaustive EA and Take Two Deal Diary from Metue.com.
[Note: This Deal Diary will be updated when more news develops. This version was last updated September 14, 2008. For related articles and analysis about the merger please see the links at the end of this Deal Diary].
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