Originally Posted by Swafford:
This merger is never going to happen! Why? Number 1 reason.......... NS has no desire to be bought! End of story Mr. Harrison!
http://www.wsj.com/articles/cp...18-months-1448055261
Whether or not a public company's board and management wants to be bought or not is not relevant. Any buyer who can purchase enough shares and get other large shareholders willing to sell can force the sale of a public company to the buyer. This happens all the time.
Companies can and sometimes do mount all kinds of "poison pill" defenses to hostile bids to make the takeover unattractive to the buyer. "Poison pills" usually make the target company much weaker and vulnerable to a hostile takeover at some later date.
Regulators are probably the biggest obstacle this merger. Shippers and other railroads will probably oppose it as being anti-competitive.
Anti-competitive grounds hasn't stopped big bank, airline and food industry mergers in the last few years and it may not stop this one if CP can get control of enough shares.
Frankly, I believe that we need more anti-trust enforcement because at some point companies become too big to manage and to fail. Anti-trust enforcement has not happened in recent years. This has left the tax payers on the hook to bail out banks, car companies, insurance companies and some others.
NH Joe
