Icahn's Bid To Buy Lear Corp. Sends Shares Flying, Raises Shareholder's Ire

Activist investor Carl Icahn publicized an offer to acquire Lear Corporation, of which already owns 16%, for $2.31 billion - roughly $36 a share. The offer was immediately criticized by Lear's third largest shareholder, Richard Pzena, who owns 11% of all outstanding shares, as not representing a fair value for the auto parts maker. Pzena went as far as to call Icahn's offer "quite disingenuous" amid uttering fears Lear's management's "personal interest in the transaction may create an inherent conflict." The per-share offer from Icahn was 3.8% higher than Friday's closing price of $34.67; shares closed up $3.97, or 11.45%, to $38.64 on news of Icahn's bid, then continued trading higher by 3.36% to $39.94 in after hours action.

Sources: Bloomberg, MarketWatch, Washington Post, Business Week
Commentary: Icahn Gets Antitrust Approval to Increase Lear Stake, Cramer's Take on LEA
Stocks/ETFs to watch: Lear Corporation (LEA). Competitors: Johnson Controls (JCI), Delphi Corp. (DPHIQ.PK), Visteon Corporation (VC)

Seeking Alpha's news summaries are combined into a pre-market briefing called Wall Street Breakfast. Get Wall Street Breakfast by email -- it's free and takes only a few seconds to sign up.