Reports suggest that yesterday Inter-Tel again rescheduled the date for its shareholder vote, this time until Aug. 2.
Shareholders were originally scheduled to vote on the $25.60 share offer from Mitel June 29, but Inter-Tel postponed that meeting until July 23 so its shareholders could “evaluate recent developments when deciding how to vote their shares.”
Those supposed developments included changes in the debt capital markets that the company said could adversely affect the availability and cost of financing for acquisition or recapitalization transactions, a direct reference to the $400 million recapitalization plan being proposed by company founder Steven Mihaylo. A week later the company said its second quarter sales would be worse than anticipated, offering further proof to shareholders that its fundamentals were deteriorating and they should vote in favour of the transaction.
The only reason listed for the latest delay is so shareholders receive 20 calendar days written notice of the meeting.
One US observer commented, “Inter-Tel is not the first company to play games with meeting dates when it knows the odds are against it, but it’s time to let shareholders decide the company's future. After all, they do own the company.”