BGC Extends Offer Deadline—Again—in GFI Takeover Battle
The Alphabet Battle between brokerages BGC Partners and CME Group to take over GFI Group was once again prolonged when Howard Lutnick's BGC today extended the deadline on its offer to February 19. A deadline had already been stretched from January 27 to 5 PM yesterday. GFI shareholders are caught in a tug of war pitting BGC's $6.10 a share (or roughly $778M) hostile bid against CME's $4.55 offer, which GFI chief Michael Gooch had accepted. CME went on to up its bid to $5.85 per share.
While an outside advisory group urged GFI stockholders to opt for BGC's "economically superior offer," the New York-based financial services company's board stuck with CME. Last month, Lutnick announced that BGC would offer GFI brokers cash for their restricted stock as a means of triumphing over the rival bidder.
