Many of us, including the NY Times editorial team, were justly concerned on March 2 when it was learned that big military contractor, United Technologies Corp (UTC) launched a bid to take over Diebold <tinyurl.com/2pjd48>.
The $3 billion bid to buy Diebold was for $40/share, a 66 percent premium over Diebold’s closing price of $24.12. Accordingly, the stock value spiked. Diebold's management refused the offer, but the stock value stayed high.
On May 20, AP reported that Louis Chenevert, UTC’s chief executive, told the Electrical Products Group conference, "We'll not buy that property without appropriate due diligence. They've not published financials.” Chenevert said “UTC likes Diebold's business model a lot, but noted it was not ‘a must have.’" But the Diebold stock value stayed high.
On May 29, Reuters reported: “‘So far the Diebold management has not wanted to talk to us,’ said Louis Chenevert, who heads the world's largest maker of elevators and air conditioners. ‘UTC will not buy Diebold if we cannot do due diligence...it would not be prudent.’” But the Diebold stock value stayed high.
Since then, there has been no more news. If there were any reasonable expectation that this deal is not going to happen, Diebold's share price would drop like a rock. But the stock value has stayed high.
One only conclude that UTC and Diebold are talking and they're just waiting for the right day when no one is paying attention, to announce the takeover. So expect on some lazy day this summer, probably over the weekend, it will come to pass that one of the world’s biggest armaments makers will formally, directly, become America's leading counter of votes.
