Business & Finance
Oracle Corp. is expected back in federal court in Delaware Wednesday in yet another move in its 17-month battle to wrest control of software rival PeopleSoft. The latter's board again rejected Oracle's $9 billion hostile takeover bid as insufficient over the weekend, even after a reported 60.8 percent of shareholders had voted to accept. The board is believed ready to drag the matter out until March, when it would be put to a vote at the company's annual meeting. Oracle attorneys will ask the court to strike down the anti-takeover defense built into PeopleSoft's strategy, reports said. Oracle has until Thursday to propose an alternate slate of directors who would do its bidding at the annual meeting.
Xstrata PLC, one of the world's leading mining groups, said it would pitch its $5.79 billion takeover bid for WMC Resources Ltd. directly to the latter's shareholders, bypassing the board of directors, who rejected the offer last month. Xstrata, based in Zug, Switzerland, seeks to add WMC to its stable of holdings in Australia. Last year, it paid $2.7 billion for MIM Holdings. WMC, based in the Melbourne suburb of Southbank, is the world's third-largest producer of nickel.
Pulitzer Inc., which owns the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and more than 70 other newspapers, hired banking giant Goldman Sachs as its consultant for a possible sale at auction, CBS MarketWatch reported. Such a sale could generate bids of up to $1.5 billion, based on the estimates of bankers familiar with the situation.
American entrepreneur Malcom Glazer has run into powerful opposition in his bid for a majority stake in Manchester United, the world's premier pro soccer team, The New York Times reported. It said eight of London's 10 biggest banks have ruled out helping Glazer or are, at best, reluctant to work on the deal, presumably because of public resistance to seeing the franchise fall into foreign hands. Glazer owns the National Football League's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He already has a 29 percent stake in Manchester United, which has an estimated market value of $1.3 billion.
Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts Inc. filed for bankruptcy Sunday. The company seeks to renovate three struggling Atlantic City casinos while cutting debt by $400 million on the properties, which face stiff competition. The restructuring plan calls for bondholders to own about two-thirds of the company. Real estate tycoon Donald Trump would see his stake shrink from 56 percent to 27 percent.
