Mo'Nique, nominated for Precious, arrives at the Oscars March 7, 2010. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress.Matt Sayles
Carl Icahn is out there lambasting the board of Lions Gate Entertainment, saying that it was the intransigence of directors that forced him to give up on a partial offer for the company and go hostile for the whole thing. But the rest of the Lions Gate shareholder base is unlikely to see that as a failing on the part of directors.
To recap, Mr. Icahn is accusing the board, by blocking his bid for 30 per cent of the company, of doing what it can to "strip shareholders of an opportunity and entrench management," forcing him to make an offer for the whole of Lions Gate.
If you're a shareholder of Lions Gate, it's hard to see it from that perspective.
Sure, you may not like the price of the hostile offer - $6 (U.S.), the same as the partial bid - but at least there's a bid on the table for the whole company, rather than a partial bid that would lead to a situation with not a whole lot of positives for other shareholders.
Partial bids, when successful, leave smaller floats, creating a bigger liquidity discount. They also give someone like Mr. Icahn a good deal of control without paying a full control premium to other shareholders, all good reasons for directors to fight tooth and nail for a takeover offer for the whole company. (And reasons why securities laws in general discourage partial bids and favour full bids.)
It looks like the market, and analysts, are still saying that Mr. Icahn doesn't have enough cash on the table, but at least now it's for all the marbles.