Apple Doesn't Want Your Cash (Credit Only, Please)

Hey, Icahn, Haven't You Heard Of Playing Hard To Get?

from the blowing-it dept

Mon, Oct 29th 2007 1:30am — Mike Masnick

Despite having publicly pushed BEA to sell itself, Carl Icahn's initial response to Oracle's takeover attempt was to say that the offer was too low at $17 per share. BEA itself responded by counteroffering at $21 per share. However, Oracle stood fast and said that since there didn't appear to be any competition, it saw no reason to raise the bid. It also said that the $17 offer would expire Sunday night. Of course, seeing as it's now Monday, the offer has, indeed, expired. Yet, Carl Icahn isn't happy. He's now demanding that BEA put the $17 offer to a shareholder vote and is threatening to sue over it. Perhaps it's just me, but this feels like one of those situations in a bad movie or TV show where two sides are negotiating, and even though one side has instructed everyone to stand firm and play hard to get, as soon as the other side stands firm itself, one guy in the corner gives in and says "take the deal guys! take the deal!" You can almost hear the sighs of exasperation from BEA's board members muttering under their breath and trying to kick Icahn to stay quiet for a little longer to see if Oracle comes back again with another bid.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: acquisitions, carl icahn
Companies: bea, oracle

4 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Max Powers at http://ConsumerFight.com, 29 Oct 2007 @ 3:27am

Has Carl Ichan forgot how to negotiate?
It's like selling something at the swap meet. The guy makes you an offer and when he doesn't like your counter offer, he starts walking away from your stand forcing you to make a judgement.

Do you call him back as he walks away or wait for him to walk around a little more and see if he comes back upping his offer. Same game, just bigger money.

How could Carl forget how to play the game?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Denis, 29 Oct 2007 @ 4:08am

How not to bargain
I have to admit, reading that just makes me laugh. Just Max Powers just said. That's also like if the guy says 5$, you counter with 8$. He says forget and walks away and you yell at home to come back and buy it at 5$ or you will sue him in court. What will be the basis of his lawsuit? That is what has got me confused.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Danny, 29 Oct 2007 @ 5:43am

Great...
So Ichan isn't getting his way (a quick score) so he's going to sue the shareholers which will generate bad press for the company which in turn lowers stock value. He didn't forget how to play the game, I suspect he never knew how. Good there Carl.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
stewart, 31 Oct 2007 @ 2:51am

BEA
Carl did offer $22 for WCI Properties awhile back. It's now $5 ish after management spurned the offer. And there's new management too.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]