Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408050094
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LITTLE ROCK, ARK. LENGTH: Medium
Tyson said WLR's alliance with a turkey company that agreed to help WLR fight the buyout has persuaded Tyson to end its $30-a-share offer for WLR stock. The announcement came just a day before expiration of Tyson's most recent deadline for its tender offer.
However, Tyson, of Springdale, Ark., said it will continue its court battles over Virginia laws that helped WLR thwart Tyson's takeover effort. Tyson spokesman Archie Schaffer also said the company hadn't decided what to do about its efforts to get eight of its nominees on the WLR board.
Last week, WLR Foods Inc. of Broadway in Rockingham County bought the turkey processing division of Cuddy Farms Inc., based in Marshfield, N.C., in exchange for WLR shares. Under the deal, Cuddy would get up to 10.5 percent of WLR stock with the understanding that Cuddy would vote its shares the way WLR's board recommends for the next four years. The WLR board opposes the Tyson takeover.
Tyson is the nation's largest poultry producer; WLR is one of the top 10 poultry producers and with addition of Cuddy would become the second-largest turkey processor.
``This does not mean we have lost interest in the company. We still believe that the WLR-Tyson merger would be in the best long-term interest to both companies,'' Schaffer said in a telephone interview.
Tyson's announcement came after the stock market had closed. Both stocks are traded on the Nasdaq market. Tyson's common stock closed at $23.9375 a share, up 31.25 cents. WLR Foods stock closed at $22.25 a share, down 25 cents.
In May, Tyson lost a key stockholder vote over voting rights for WLR shares it had acquired, but Tyson has gone to federal court to protest that vote and a series of anti-takeover moves by WLR. Tyson also is seeking to elect eight of its nominees to WLR's board.
by CNB