Portnoys pay greenmail to make activist go away

• Government Properties Income Trust (NYSE:GOV-OLD) agrees to buy 3.4M shares of Select Income REIT (SIR) from Lakewood Capital Management for $27.85 per share (vs. Friday's closing price of $24.69).
• The move will boost GOV's stake in SIR to about 28.8% of the company from 24.3%.
• Both GOV and SIR, of course, are run by the Portnoy's Reit Management & Research (RMR), and Lakewood had built a stake in Select income maybe with the intention of removing the Portnoys from power there as they had been removed from Commonwealth REIT (now renamed Equity Commonwealth).
• Source: Press Release
• Previously: Activist targets Select Income REIT (Jan. 14)