Friday, March 28, 2008

Diebold filing: UTC already has ownership stake

United Technologies Corp. revealed that it already has a 3.5 percent ownership in its acquisition target, Diebold Inc. of Ohio, an electronics transaction systems maker that UTC had offered to buy for $4.3 billion.

The Hartford, Conn.-based technology giant, UTC (NYSE:UTX) currently holds 2.28 million shares of the outstanding common shares of Diebold, according to Diebold's most recent quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the first quarter 2007. That makes UTC Diebold's sixth largest shareowner, officials say.

UTC starting picking up Diebold shares in July 2005, ahead of its January 2006 request for a discussion with Diebold, by which time UTC owned 1.6 million Diebold shares.

On Sunday March 2, UTC said that it had proposed a $40 per share cash offer for all outstanding shares of Diebold, which was a 66 percent premium to Diebold's trading price as of the prior Friday's market close. Diebold's board of directors has to date refused UTC's requests to discuss the offer. according to UTC officials.

United Technologies made a profit of $4.2 billion for 2007, on revenue of $54.8 billion.