Word: paramount
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Paramount attacked the revised Time-Warner merger agreement as "a defensive device, pure and simple. From the standpoint of Time shareholders," the company said, "we don't see how it begins to compare with our offer of $175 a share in cash for all shares." Declared Paramount's principal investment banker, Robert Greenhill of Morgan Stanley: "We consider this a very weak response." Paramount repeated an earlier offer to negotiate a higher price, and declared, "We will continue our efforts to acquire Time Inc. with firm determination...
...first look at the proposed Time- Warner cash bid. Time stock, which had closed at 180 on Tuesday on rumors that major new bidders might enter the fray, fell to 162 1/2 a share on Friday. Warner stock rose to 59 1/4, up 3 1/8 for the week, and Paramount, which was also the subject of takeover rumors, closed at 58 1/8, down 1. Many takeover speculators, some of whom own stock in all three companies, seemed perplexed at the growing complexity and unpredictability of the triangular struggle...
Critics of the deal complained that it would not quickly raise Time's stock to the level of Paramount's bid. "Time management had a plan to build an empire, and somebody threw a wrench into that plan by offering the shareholders a better price," said Ralph Whitworth, director of the United Shareholders Association, a Washington-based advocacy group. "It should have been left up to the shareholders to decide" how to vote on Paramount's proposal. Disappointed Time stockholders may be inclined to bring lawsuits accusing the company of failing to look after their immediate interests. Said...
...rejecting Paramount's bid and going its own way, Time contends that the $175-a-share offer was never really credible. Nicholas noted that it was contingent on "substantial conditions" that included Paramount's ability to obtain financing and the approval of regulatory agencies...
...Paramount's biggest potential obstacles is the task of persuading the Federal Communications Commission and some 750 local governments around the country to transfer to Paramount the licenses and franchise rights for cable- TV units operated by Time's 82%-owned American Television and Communications. Getting approval for such transfers "would be difficult even without a hostile bid," says Ross, "but now we'll be challenging them every inch of the way." As the three-way takeover battle wears on, it is likely to be fought in just that contentious manner -- in the courts, the stock market and the corporate...