 |
|
|
Something new in your business? Click here to submit your business press release Chamber Corner | Main Street News | Job Hunt | Classifieds | Calendar | Illinois Lottery |
|
|
Third Point sues Sotheby's over poison pill [March 26, 2014] By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) — Daniel Loeb's Third Point on Tuesday sued Sotheby's to remove poison pill restrictions that block the hedge fund from acquiring up to 20 percent of the auction house's stock.
Loeb's firm, which already owns 9.6 percent of the
company, said in the lawsuit that the poison pill
unfairly targets activist shareholders like himself,
seeking to shake up the board of directors. But it
allows passive investors to buy up to 20 percent of the
company. The "poison pill is not a reasonable corporate response to a takeover threat, but rather an improper attempt to thwart Third Point's proxy contest and ensure that the current board members remain firmly entrenched," the lawsuit said. |
|
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday in Delaware
Chancery Court. Loeb, an art collector who began building his stake in Sotheby's
this past summer, last month nominated three directors,
including himself, to the company's board. Sotheby's adopted the poison pill, or shareholder rights plan,
in October after Loeb began turning up the heat on the company
by comparing it to an "old master painting in desperate need of
restoration" and urging that its chief executive be replaced. On Tuesday, Sotheby's called the rights plan "an important tool
to ensure that all Sotheby's shareholders are treated fairly," a
spokeswoman said in a statement. Last week, Third Point said the company had refused to amend the
terms of the rights plan to let the hedge fund boost its stake
up to 20 percent. (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; editing by Richard Valdmanis, Bernard Orr) [© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
