Tendering Shares

Now, that number may appear trivial at first blush, but lets not get all Democratic, blue-state, sunny-exit-polls, early-election-returns happy-slappy here. Tendering shares is a hassle. Nobody tenders shares until the last possible minute. "More people keep them nearby," said Tom Burnett, president of Merger Insight, an affiliate of Wall Street Access, in New York. "They dont want to go through the trouble of withdrawing" them, he said. Not only is it a hassle and easy to procrastinate about, but it just makes plain good sense to wait out the ups and downs of news headlines. "They tend to wait until the last day or so, just in case news comes out," Burnett said. News that could impact shareholders decisions include judges rulings, IBMs unlikely-but-still-possible role as white knight, disappointing quarterly returns from PeopleSoft, etc. The thing to bear in mind is that shareholders have absolutely nothing to lose if they tender their shares. Even if they want a higher bid, theyll tender as of Nov. 19. Why? Because shareholders dont lose their shares if they tender. They can always withdraw the tendered shares after the Nov. 19 deadline. Because they know that Nov. 19 is their last chance to tender, and because they know that there will be additional negotiations following the tender, they will tender. "I would be surprised if they dont get the majority vote," Lawlor said. "They should get a fairly substantial majority tendered in. Its a no-lose proposition for the shareholders." They will tender. Like it or not, Oracle will win this battle. PeopleSofts Dave Duffield will put out his plans for PeopleSoft on Nov. 15—and in them you can bet that there will be a rejection of Oracles bid—but mark my words, shareholders will tender. Write to me at lisa_vaas@ziffdavis.com. eWEEK.com Associate Editor Lisa Vaas has written about enterprise applications since 1997. Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest database news, reviews and analysis.