Content area
Prentice-Hall Inc. directors, calling Gulf & Western Industries Inc.'s $700 million tender offer "inadequate," said they would seek a better offer and granted "golden parachute" severance provisions to 13 officers and directors.
Dillon, Read & Co., Prentice-Hall's investment banker, has been actively seeking a friendly suitor for the company. One source said several domestic and foreign companies, both in publishing and non-publishing businesses, have expressed interest in Prentice-Hall. Takeover experts are divided on the subject. One said, "There's room for a sharp bidding contest here." Others, however, questioned whether a company of Prentice-Hall's size and relatively limited publishing and information services operations could command a much higher price than G&W offered.
Though Prentice-Hall is seeking a higher bidder, sources close to the company indicated the publisher wouldn't resist G&W if it emerged with a higher offer. Prentice-Hall, in its statements and Securities and Exchange Commission filings, didn't say that it opposed G&W, only that its investment banker had determined it could get a better price. In a letter to Prentice-Hall directors, Dillon Read said the G&W price was inadequate based on Prentice-Hall's historical market price and trading volume data, information on certain other tender offers and mergers and financial information on companies in businesses comparable to Prentice-Hall's.