Bridgestone will buy Pep Boys for $947 million, shunning a competing bid from investor Carl Icahn, to complete its purchase of the auto parts chain, Bloomberg reported (via Automotive News).
The bidding between Icahn and Bridgestone began in October when the auto parts chain shunned a $800 million price from Icahn to agree to an $835 million bid from the Japanese tire giant. Icahn raised his bid first to $863 million, then up to up to $1 billion for the chain, but Pep Boys ultimately decided the $947 million offer from Bridgestone was a better deal.
The last-minute bid for the chain would create the world’s largest chain of 3,000 stores, including Bridgestone’s Tires Plus, Firestone Complete Auto Care, Hibdon Tires Plus and Wheel Works stores. Icahn, who announced that he had purchased a 12-percent stake in Pep Boys this month, said the deal constituted a good plan for investors.
“We’re happy that we have materially enhanced value for all shareholders,” Icahn told Bloomberg. “Merry Christmas to all of them.
“We cannot understand the actions of the directors in that they know we were willing to offer a lot more than $17,” he added.
Icahn sparked a bidding war for the auto parts chain — which includes 800 stores — earlier this year in an effort to consolidate the franchise with Auto Plus, a franchise he owns as well.
Bridgestone had up until Dec. 24 to counter Icahn’s bid. It’s unclear when the sale may be finalized for the chain.
I still won’t go to Pep Boys.
We need shed no tears for Carl Icahn, who bought 12% of the company’s shares before he started this bidding war. He’ll make money from losing this war and selling his stake to Bridgestone.
Whether or not Bridgestone will ever make money on what they had to spend to win the war remains to be seen.
The guys who made the buy will work to ensure that Pep Boys is operationally fully integrated into their other automotive supply businesses so that this question can never be answered…
Yeah, if anyone lost here it’s Bridgestone. Ichan walks away with a lot of money, as he usually does.
Why Bridgestone would want to drag their name through the mud by owning Pep Boys is beyond me.
Takata maybe be struggling but this , Japanese original part supplier is doing very well
I wonder if Icahn was just trying to Jack up the stock price with this bidding war and had no intention of actually buying the controlling stake.
It was probably a two point plan. Get more for his investment was the goal, and he’d do it either by selling high or buying and restructuring.
Pepboys is a sad, sad company, with stores stacked full of the cheapest, Chinese made crap imaginable, and clueless “technicians.”
Is Autozone, NAPA, Discount Auto Parts, etc, etc, any better? To me they are pretty much all the same, the difference being that PepBoys sells tires and will do most standard service type work (notice I didn’t say they would do it well). The smaller auto parts places can switch out a battery or install wiper blades, but that’s about it. They all carry plenty of junk (fake hood scoops, Hello Kitty floor mats, etc) in addition to standard OEM quality replacement parts (brakes, alternators, struts, and so on).
My question is will they only sell Bridgestone branded tires? I swear I’ve purchased other brands from my local TiresPlus and they are Bridgestone owned.
Agreed. Feels like a larger version of the Walmart automotive section without the benefit of low prices. Always my source of last resort.
When I have old car with issues, I go to pepboys. Their mechanics are clueless on how to find an issue and they pass inspection. But they would call you and tell that your brakes fail the inspection. You take your micrometer and go there, show into their face that your brakes are fine.
Now. They selling synthetic oil for something like $50 when Walmart around the cornet has same bottles for $25. do they really understand the issue- obviously – not
They’ll have a full suite of crappy tire and auto parts stores now…I avoid Pep Boys, Firestone et al like the plague. Pep Boys is the lowest common denominator. Local or regional chains like Dunn Tire etc are the places to go because they have enough business and experience to have quality alignment techs, decent tire guys, etc. For tools and hardware, Pep Boys is like Harbor Freight WITHOUT the good pricing…
You’ll need to update this story. Bridgestone is out, Icahn is doing the deal.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-29/bridgestone-declines-to-raise-bid-for-pep-boys-after-icahn-offer