Word: dillers
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...last-minute rabbit out of his hat. Unknown to most analysts and investors, a team of investment advisers and lawyers was secretly huddled at the Ritz Carlton hotel in New York City negotiating a blockbuster of a deal that would help Viacom beat the rival bid of Barry Diller's QVC Network...
...both the merger and the apparent meagerness of the new offer. After two weeks of furious negotiations and consultations with a team of investment bankers from Morgan Stanley, Redstone had produced a bid that was considered by many analysts to be not only anticlimactic but also inferior to Diller's current offer. Though the offer is a complex blend of stock and cash, the estimated value of the Viacom-Blockbuster package is around $79 for each share of Paramount stock, in contrast to QVC's $82 a share. The main difference between the two bids -- and what Redstone is counting...
...chairman of cable-TV giant Tele-Communications Inc., testified in a deposition that "one would have a hard time paying more than $75 a share" for Paramount. Malone is no casual observer: he reportedly offered Davis $70 a share for Paramount three years ago. Malone had also backed Diller's bid for Paramount through TCI's Liberty Media programming unit before Liberty agreed to sell its 22% stake in QVC last month...
Paramount said its board would meet to set up a procedure to consider bids from all interested parties. So unless Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone decides to raise his bid, his company could be the loser. Diller, who watched the hearing on television from QVC's West Chester, Pennsylvania, offices, said he was "delighted" with the ruling. "Obviously he's very happy," said designer Diane von Furstenberg, a confidant. Yet neither she nor Diller was ready to declare final victory in the Paramount struggle. "Nothing is ever a fait accompli in life," Von Furstenberg said. "Only the future will tell...
BUSINESS: Diller Closes In on Paramount...