This blog previously to the “Deal Professor” about the Airgas/Air Products litigation. He’s at it again with a great post about the ramifications of the Delaware Chancery Court’s upholding Airgas’ poison pill (I’ll discuss poison pills soon, promise). First, he analyzes Air Products’ strategy:
Air Products instead focused all its effort on the legal case to nullify Airgas’s poison pill. Air Products devised a strategy that asserted that $70 per share was its best and final offer. If the pill was not ordered redeemed, Air Products would walk. This argument was devised to play to prior ruminations by Delaware court judges that in such circumstances they might redeem a poison pill.
Then provides his conclusion about who actually won.
Airgas won. It managed to put forth a good defense to the offense Air Products created, but it was helped by two fortuitous events. Airgas was provided a lifeline by a friendly Delaware Supreme Court. Airgas also benefited from Air Products’ focus on the legal case to the exclusion of other strategies.
The whole post is an excellent analysis, and provides some “inside baseball” type information. A must read for investors and their lawyers.
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