Pep Boys board: Icahn’s bid ‘superior proposal’

Pep Boys earlier this month had backed a $15.50-a- share offer from Tokyo-based Bridgestone.

Pep Boys is calling a revised offer from billionaire Carl Icahn a superior bid, just days after the auto parts seller accepted a sweetened deal from tire company Bridgestone.

Bridgestone now has until 5 p.m. NY time on Wednesday to make another proposal, Pep Boys said in a statement Monday.

Icahn Enterprises delivered its offer to Pep Boys in the evening of December 18 with the caveat that it was “not an open-ended proposal”.

To recap, Ulrich looked at the Securities and Exchange Commission files and other sources and determined the Bridgestone purchase of Pep Boys was, for all intents and purposes, a “done deal”.

Bridgestone had earlier raised its offer for Pep Boys by 50 cents a share.

Bridgestone made a bid for Pep Boys with the idea of expanding its retail operation in the U.S.

Activist investor Icahn had been meeting with the automotive chain for six months, but previously hadn’t offered anything over $13.50 per share, which was no match for Bridgestone’s all-cash offer of $15 per share, which was finalized as a definitive agreement on November 16 following the announcement on October 26 that Bridgestone had made a tender offer for Pep Boys.