Experts: The Starwood Bidding War Might Not Be Over
Hold onto your hotels—the Starwood-Marriott merger saga might not be over yet.
Experts told Bloomberg yesterday that, though Starwood approved Marriott’s shiny new $13.6B offer, Angbang (Starwood’s second suitor) has the opportunity to one-up Marriott once again.
“I have to believe there is at least one more act to this play,” Frank Aquila, a partner in mergers and acquisitions at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell in New York, tells Bloomberg.
The Starwood takeover contest started with Marriott’s original $12.2B offer for the company in fall 2015. Marriott appeared to have the company locked up until Anbang swooped in with a $13.2B offer, to which Marriott fired back a $13.6B proposal.
According to Bloomberg, Anbang chairman Wu Xiaohui has a history of last minute heroics—it remains to be seen if he will let Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson run away with the prize. [Bloomberg]
