Pep Boys Bidding War Heats Up as Icahn Raises Stakes to $919 Million
The bidding war for Pep Boys – Manny, Moe & Jack shows no signs of cooling off. Billionaire Carl Icahn raised his bid for the Philly-based auto parts, maintenance and repair chain to a whopping $919 million. That’s $16.50 per share in cash.
Last week, Bridgestone Americas increased its original offer by $28 million to $15.50 per share and appeared to have the upper hand in the negotiations. But Pep Boys said Icahn’s latest offer is a “superior proposal” and plans to terminate the previous Bridgestone agreement.
In fact, Pep Boys says the merger agreement with Icahn “is not subject to due diligence or financing conditions” and also “contains a ‘hell or high water’ anti-trust covenant.”
Bridgestone has until Dec. 23 at 5 p.m. to make a counter offer.
Back in October, Pep Boys agreed to be acquired by Japan-based Bridgestone for $835 million. Then Icahn — owner of Auto Plus — stepped in and a bidding war began. Bridgestone would be in position to greatly expand their own businesses by acquiring Pep Boys and its 800 retail outlets. Bridgestone has 2,200 of its own outlets in the U.S., Yahoo! reports, while Icahn’s Auto Plus network has 2,300 stores.
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