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Take That, Steel Partners! Bull-Dog Shows its Growl

June 12, 2007
By Ken Worsley


According to a Kyodo News report, 100% of Bull-Dog employees have signed a document “expressing objections” against the unsolicited takeover bid by Steel Partners, who is the largest single shareholder in the sauce company.

Can this get any better, or more strange? According to the report, all 250 employees of Bull-Dog signed a document stating that the takeover “would seriously undercut the trustful relationship we have built up for years with our customers as well as that between employees and the management.”

It does get better. In a written statement, Bull-Dog actually said: “[We have] asked the Tokyo District Court to appoint an examiner under Article 308 of the Corporate Law to investigate procedures we have taken to convene this shareholders’ meeting as well as methods the shareholders will use to pass resolutions…to ensure that no one can accuse our firm of breaking laws regarding the procedures and vote-taking methods.”

I, for one, never believed that Saddam Hussein was actually elected unanimously. Call me cynical.

Bull-Dog shares fell 41 yen in Monday trading.

Filed Under Barbarians at the Gate, M&A 

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Comments

4 Responses to “Take That, Steel Partners! Bull-Dog Shows its Growl”

  1. Scott on June 12th, 2007 8:56 am

    These anti-takeover methods being used by quite a few Japanese companies recently just don’t sit right with me. They’re something about them that just feels a bit under-handed and unethical. Maybe I just don’t like to see capitalism being restricted, who knows! Anyway, let’s hope Rakuten is successful in their court challenge to TBS and market forces are allowed to operate more freely in the future.

  2. ET on June 12th, 2007 10:02 am

    If you are public you can be taken over IMHO.

  3. Ken Worsley on June 12th, 2007 11:33 am

    Scott, the Rakuten/TBS case is a good one. I’ve seen some quotes coming from TBS management that make the Bull-Dog guys sound smart(ish).

    ET, I’m not sure who would disagree with you. In fact, that’s exactly the problem from the BD point of view.

  4. Kathryn on June 15th, 2007 3:09 am

    Don’t these takeover defences sound a bit too much like management is looking to save their jobs but not much else? If they would just focus their attention on fixing their balance sheet, there wouldn’t be an issue. And AWS and other takeover defences in Japan have never been tested

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