Monday, December 13, 2010

Compellent Takes A Tough Bid

Ever since Dell (Nasdaq:DELL) was thwarted by Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) in its attempt to buy 3Par, market-watchers have been playing the match-up game trying to guess which company Dell would target next. As a young and emerging player in the storage space, Compellent (NYSE:CML) had been one of the names in play, and the stock had more than doubled in the last three months. 

As it turns out, those rumors had a good news/bad news aspect to them. While Dell's bid for Compellent did in fact materialize, it was at a price that was significantly below the going rate for Compellent shares.  (For more, see The Wacky World Of Mergers And Acquisitions.)

An Odd Path to a Deal 
This deal followed a road a little less traveled than the norm. Most likely in response to chatter about a deal, Dell and Compellent issued a press release last week indicating that they were in serious talks about a deal ... and that the deal would be an all-cash transaction with a price at or around $27.50 per share.

Not only was it rare to see that sort of "we think we have a deal, and here's the deal, but it's not a deal ...yet" sort of release, but it was rare to see a bid that was pretty substantially below the going rate for the stock - especially in today's hot tech M&A market. Oddly enough, there does not seem to be a "go shop" opportunity as part of the deal (or at least not one highlighted in the companies' press release). It has become de rigeur for certain law firms to file nuisance suits in the wake of announced deals claiming that the selling company hosed its investors by selling too cheaply, and this sort of deal would seem to be asking for that kind of headache. 



Please click the link below for the full piece:
http://stocks.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2010/Compellent-Takes-A-Tough-Bid-DELL-CML-HPQ-IBM-EMC-NTAP1213.aspx

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