Grey Global shareholder
sues company to halt WPP takeover
Indiantelevision.com
Team
(22 December 2004 2:00
pm)
MUMBAI: One of the shareholders of the Grey Global
Group - David Shaev - has sued the ad agency and has asked a judge
to halt a planned $1.52 billion takeover by the WPP Group that would
give more than $50 million to Grey CEO Edward H Meyer.
Sir Martin Sorell owned WPP, which is the world's
second-largest advertising company after the Omnicom Group, had announced
in September this year that it was buying Grey. The European Commission
is in the process of reviewing the combination.
According to a media report, Shaev said in a lawsuit
filed on 17 December in the Delaware Chancery Court that the sale
was unfair because Meyer would get $86.9 million if the company was
sold this year, and $54.5 million if the sale closed in 2005, thus
reducing the amount public shareholders might receive.
The media report added that WPP said it would buy Grey for $1,005
a share, half in cash and half in stock, to narrow the gap with
Omnicom as the advertising industry recovers from a slump that began
in 2000.
