Monday, October 13, 2008

UTC rescinds $4.3B offer for Diebold

By Mass High Tech Staff

Hartford, Conn.-based United Technologies Corp. has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Diebold Inc. of Ohio, originally offered in February for $40 per share.

News of the retracted offer came to the Ohio electronics transaction systems maker via a letter to Diebold chairman John N. Lauer from UTC chairman George David. In the letter, David cites Diebold’s “extended refusals of UTC’s requests for management and due diligence,” a release from UTC company officials reports. A March 28 Mass High Tech article reported that Diebold’s board of directors had refused UTC’s requests to discuss the offer.

In March, UTC (NYSE:UTX) revealed that it already had a 3.5 percent ownership in Diebold due to its holding of 2.28 million shares of the outstanding common shares of Diebold, according to a Diebold quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the first quarter 2007.

UTC started 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.

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