Board Meeting: Responding to a Takeover Bid

Right, shall we begin? I take it you've all read it.

Oh, read it, reread it, and lost a night's sleep.

Entirely unsolicited, of course. How very thoughtful of them.

I fear Hartwell think we're ripe for the picking.

Well... at nine pounds a share, who can blame them?

Helen, give it to us straight. Is the price fair?

Frankly, no. It undervalues us quite considerably.

And the bid ignores every contract we've signed since spring!

So they're buying the dip, and calling it generosity.

Twenty percent short, at least, on any sensible valuation.

The trouble is, our shareholders may not see it that way.

Well, a thirty percent premium is awfully tempting.

Ugh, the hedge funds will be ringing by lunchtime.

Which is precisely why we can't dismiss it out of hand.

And what becomes of our people in all this?

Hartwell's record on integration is, shall we say, brutal.

They gutted the last firm they acquired... within a year.

Synergies, they called it, if memory serves.

And our culture is half of what they're paying for.

Still, our fiduciary duty is to the shareholders, first and foremost.

Agreed, but that duty means securing full value,

not rubber-stamping the first bid that comes along.

Hang on, so is this a no, or a not yet?

Hmm... that, I suspect, is the real question.

We could reject it, but signal we're open to talks.

If they want us, let them sharpen their pencils.

Yes! And meanwhile, we quietly sound out a white knight!

Brightway have been circling for years, haven't they?

They have! And they'd keep the business intact.

Right, then. We reject the offer as it stands,

but we make it clear the door isn't closed.

Firm, but not slammed shut. I like it.

Lovely. I'll have the advisers rework the numbers by Friday.

Excellent. And naturally, not a word leaves this room.