Carl Icahn extends Lions Gate tender offer a fourth time
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Lions Gate executives won’t be able to give thanks on Thursday that Carl Icahn’s takeover bid has ended.
The billionaire corporate raider announced late Tuesday that he was extending his $7.50-per-share tender offer to take over the company to Dec. 2. It had been scheduled to expire Tuesday night at 11:59 p.m. That’s the fourth time since he launched it in August that Icahn has extended the deadline for the offer, which only takes effect if enough shareholders tender to give him majority control of the company.
The move comes as Icahn is soliciting candidates to run on a slate of directors against Lions Gate’s incumbent board, according to people familiar with the matter. The activist investor, who owns 33.5% of the company, has yet to announce who he will nominate for the board in a proxy fight planned for the Santa Monica film and television studio’s annual meeting of shareholders, which is scheduled for Dec. 14.
Icahn has been embroiled in a bitter public fight with Lions Gate management for more than a year, and the two sides are currently suing each other in court. Meanwhile, they have been working together, thus far unsuccessfully, to enact a merger between Lions Gate and bankrupt Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, in which Icahn is a large bondholder.
-- Ben Fritz
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Icahn keeps two legal fights going with Lions Gate