BEA says still looking at possible sale of company
52477
Software maker BEA Systems Inc's  board said on Monday it is holding out for a $21-a-share takeover offer, a day after its larger rival Oracle Corp  withdrew its $17-a-share offer.
727066
Oracle has agreed to buy BEA Systems for about $8.5 billion, the companies announced Wednesday.The deal comes just three months after&#160;the middleware vendor turned down an earlier offer of $6.7 billion.Oracle hopes that acquiring middleware vendor BEA will&#160;allow it to improve its own middleware suite, Fusion.That middleware is key to helping customers migrate their systems to a services-oriented architecture (SOA), CEO Larry Ellison said in a conference call last month to discuss the company&#39;s earnings.With Fusion already able to link to BEA&#39;s WebLogic Java application server, the deal is likely to speed Oracle&#39;s adoption of Java-based middleware, the company said.Oracle&#39;s customers have been telling it for years to buy BEA, it said.However the members of BEA&#39;s board were less sold on the idea: They&#160;turned down an offer from Oracle of $17 per BEA share in October, saying it &quot;significantly undervalues BEA.&quot; Oracle in turn&#160;dismissed the BEA board&#39;s counter-offer of $21 per share as &quot;impossibly high&quot;.But on Wednesday the companies split the difference, and BEA&#39;s board announced it had unanimously approved Oracle&#39;s latest offer of $19.375 in cash per BEA share.The board accepted only after spending several months looking for other ways to maximize shareholder value, BEA&#39;s chairman and CEO Alfred Chuang said in a statement.The companies expect to close the deal by mid-year, subject to the approval of regulators and BEA shareholders.&#160;
588358
(InfoWorld) - Talk about raining on a parade. BEA Systems concluded its cheery BEAWorld San Francisco conference last Wednesday. Highlights of the seemingly triumphant event included presentations from executives like Chairman, CEO and President Alfred Chuang and product introductions like its new application server, WebLogic Server 10.3, and a dynamic application development platform called Project Genesis. Then, two days later, well-known corporate activist and billionaire Carl Icahn, a BEA investor, expressed intentions to seek the sale of BEA, believing the company would have a hard time staying afloat as a standalone company in its industry. Icahn may seek to seat a board of directors more favorable to his plea. But not so fast, a BEA insider said. While the company itself has continued to decline comment on the Icahn matter, this insider familiar with BEA's investor-related workings did not give out much hope for Icahn to get a more compliant board elected. Icahn has an 8.5 percent stake in the company, which would represent about 33.5 million shares, said the source, who asked to not be identified. "But if you look closely at the filing, you'll see about 16.2 million of those are options, not actual holdings," the source said. "He only owns about 4 percent," said the source. "What this means is that if he was gong to exercise those options, he'd have to plunk down another several hundred million in cash right now," the source said. Further complicating any efforts to force a sale is that BEA is one of several companies that has had to restate past financial statements due to backdating of stock options. With that issue still ongoing, the company cannot even hold an annual meeting where Icahn could attempt to elect a favorable board, according to the source. An annual meeting is expected to be held this fall, but even then, BEA only re-elects three or four members of its 10-member board every year, the source said. Thus Icahn could not get control of the board in a single year. Just publicly announcing plans to try to seek a sale of a company can drive up a stock price, the source said. BEA's stock went up 4 percent Friday, the source said. Still, Icahn's setting sights on a software company like BEA, which has only intellectual property assets, "might be a sign of things to come for the tech world," said the source.Â  Icahn has been involved in similar efforts with such companies as Motorola and Lear. Icahn could not be immediately reached on Monday afternoon. BEA has been the target of takeover rumors before. One particular company that has stood out as a potential suitor has been Oracle. But BEA has continued to chug along independently although its license revenues in the most recent quarter shrunk 9 percent, to $123.1 million, over the same time period a year ago. BEA also has plans to move into a new headquarters in downtown San Jose, Calif. next year, even getting a city subsidy to encourage the move. Whether that office building would bear the name of BEA, a prospective new parent company, or possibly remain empty remains to be seen.
371587
Activist investor Carl Icahn on Friday called for BEA Systems Inc  to auction itself to the highest bidder and let shareholders decide its fate, two days before a $6.7 billion offer from Oracle Corp  was set to lapse.
136923
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26  Â The business software maker BEA Systems signaled its intent to let Oracleâs $6.7 billion takeover bid expire Sunday, setting the stage for a showdown with its largest shareholder, the billionaire investor Carl C. Icahn.
750645
Sales of small pickups are still in the dumps, but car companies have thoughts about picking up this business.
179498
PeopleSoft's board is willing to talk about a deal if the price is right.
378930
Deal moves closer to completion, but is still subject to shareholder approval.
55439
CIGS aren't on the market yet, but there's a lot of money floating around. And the Miasole layoff rumors aren't true, says company.
283843
The real estate and travel company says it will continue to look for a buyer of its mortgage business.
472316
BEA Systems&#39; largest shareholder is demanding that its board of directors allow shareholders to vote on a&#160;$17-per-share purchase offer from Oracle, which is set to expire at 5 p.m. Pacific Time Sunday.Carl Icahn, who holds more than 58 million shares of BEA stock, said in a statement that he has begun lawsuit proceedings in Delaware to force an annual shareholder meeting &quot;before any scorched earth transactions (such as stock issuances, asset sales, acquisitions or similar occurrences) take place at BEA, other than transactions that are approved by shareholders.&quot;The investor accused BEA&#39;s board of intending &quot;to find ways to derail a sale and maintain your control of the company.&quot;&#160;BEA&#39;s board has repeatedly rejected Oracle&#39;s bid&#160;to buy the company,&#160;demanding $21 per share. Oracle&#39;s offer amounts to $6.7 billion, while BEA&#39;s demand works out to $8.3 billion. Oracle has called that price &quot;impossibly high.&quot;Icahn said BEA can avoid litigation if it conducts an auction sale, allowing shareholders to consider offers from the highest bidder.&quot;BEA should not allow the stalking horse bid from Oracle to disappear (failure to take the Oracle bid as a stalking horse would be a grave dereliction of your fiduciary duty in my view),&quot; he wrote. &quot;But if no topping bid arises it should be up to the BEA shareholders to decide whether to take the Oracle bid or remain as an independent Company.&quot;Icahn also demanded that &quot;BEA should agree not to take any action that would dilute voting by issuing stock, entrench management or derail a potential sale of BEA.&quot;Shares of BEA stock closed at $16.50 and were trading at $16.75 after hours on Friday.A BEA spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
602322
Bargain hunters may want to keep an eye on this stock.
431403
The argument has long been that even if IBM loses money selling PCs - and in recent years it frequently has - those sales are still a foot in the door, a route to selling higher margin servers, software and services.
702747
A bidding consortium led by the Royal Bank of Scotland is expected to give some insight as to whether it will go ahead with a rival offer.
536247
Business & money: Â· No talks yet to extend designer's contractÂ· Retailer to report worst performance for two years
619657
Oracle's offer of $17 per share? No thanks, BEA says again--and this time, it's countering with what it sees as a better value for its shareholders.
278206
After allowing Oracleâs buyout offer to expire on Sunday, BEA Systems defended its inaction in a letter to its largest shareholder, Carl C. Icahn, saying the offer was simply too low.