In an unusual and short conference call this morning Westwood One CEO Rod Sherwood (pictured) was grilled for about 15 minutes by a representative of Greenbridge Capital. It's odd you see a conference call held to discuss a deal yet to close for this exact reason. The investor questioned why more information wasn't available to shareholders about a second offer that was made (for $5.68 per share) and whether or not Westwood was really seeking the best offer. Westwood One?s stock jumped when the deal was announced on August 1, rising to $6.19 a share that day from $5.85 the previous trading session. But it has since sagged, starting the day today at about $4.30.
Sherwood said part of the decision to go with Dial-Global was based on cost and revenue synergies that they were not going to disclose today and would be aggressively pursued once the merger closed. The investor shot back that that's "hard to quantify and we've been kind of left in the dark on this." He also went on to criticize Sherwood for not providing enough information for anyone else to submit a competing proposal for the company. "There was no information available for anyone to submit a proposal." Westwood's attorney responded by saying everyone was aware of the merger since the 8K was filed with the SEC on August 4th.
The arrangement to merge Westwood and Dial-Global into one company is expected to close some time during the 4th quarter. It has already been approved by D.O.J. It's not expected that Sherwood will be a part of the new company although no official announcement has been made.
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