Carl Icahn Seeks To Buy All Shares of Lions Gate Entertainment
Billionaire Carl C. Icahn is now seeking to acquire all of Lions Gate shares, of which he already owns 18.9 percent.
On an earlier occasion, his bid was rejected and the entertainment company had rewritten its bylaws to make such a changeover difficult.
Icahn seeks to increase his shares in the film entertainment company by 29.9 percent. In a statement, Icahn said that he had succeeded in keeping his offer and that he would try to change the board of Lions Gate and, “potentially, its top management.” He added, “Lions Gate previously criticized our tender offer for being partial. That is no longer the case. Due to management’s recent actions, I am now convinced that Lions Gate shareholders will never have the right to make important decisions. I am dismayed that Lions Gate’s board of directors chose to implement a poison pill and thus deny their shareholders the opportunity to participate in our offer. I believe these tactics serve only to strip shareholders of an opportunity and entrench management.”
To acquire the remaining shares, Icahn is continuing with his earlier bid of $6 per share. On Friday, Lions Gate shares rose 6 cents to $6.03.
Lions Gate, in a statement, said that the management would review the offer, primarily because the new bid “does not increase the price of the original offer.” Moreover, it argues that Icahn’s bid was “coercive” to shareholders as it was meant to gain control of the company and was and was a cause for uncertainty. It said that Icahn was not willing to pay a “control premium.”
Jon Feltheimer, cochairman and chief executive, in a statement, said, “The Lions Gate board of directors strongly believes that the unsolicited partial offer by the Icahn Group is inadequate from a financial point of view and doesn’t reflect the full value of Lions Gate shares."
