Waterstone withdraws from HMV bookshops bid |
|
|
Published
:
Tue, 02 May 2006 18:05
|
LONDON - Waterstone's founder Tim Waterstone has decided to drop the idea of buying the bookstore chain after the current owner HMV Group PLC set down a host of conditions that he felt unable to meet.
Tim Waterstone had offered £280 million for the chain, but withdrew on Tuesday saying that "no potential acquirer" could have met the conditions imposed by HMV. However he reiterated that he was still "highly interested" minus the conditions. HMV had announced earlier that one of the backers of the consortium bidding for Waterstone's had backed out. The group had informed the stock market that Lazard Private Equity partners was no longer a part of the consortium.
If the bid had been successful, Mr Waterstone would have become the chairman of the group, while Anthony Forbes Watson, the former Penguin UK would have been the CEO. Among the supposedly impossible conditions imposed by HMV was one, which allowed it to terminate the bid at any time and barring it for one year. The group had also required the consortium to complete due diligence in 2 weeks.
"No potential acquirer could reasonably have accepted these conditions," Mr Waterstone stressed. "However, we believe the financial logic for the group to sell the book business is demonstrably clear, and if these assets should be put on the market without penal preconditions to due diligence, then we would remain highly interested." He added that they had spent all weekend hammering out the deal and making an offer, "They [HMV] wouldn't allow us proper due diligence procedures and without those proper due diligence procedures we could not continue," he said.
But HMV has disputed these assertions, "It was a standard agreement for mergers and acquisitions and they made no attempt to negotiate on it," a company spokeswoman said. The deal also hinged on HMV not acquiring Ottakar's. HMV had scrapped its £96.4 million bid for its rival after competition concerns arose. But in March the Competition Commission gave a tentative nod for the deal and it is expected that the bid will be revived.
|
|
|
|
| Comments |
|
horrible histories |
|
Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:13:08 GMT (
lauren ) |
|
|
I can't beleive that tim didn't buy back the bookstore, but atthe same time the one store in Amsterdam is extremely good and it is the only place i can buy one of my favourite history book series Horrible Histories and i would like to know the website address of the chain if possible. |
| |
|
|
|
|
Print this Story
HMV pins hopes on Harry Potter release 