Simon Manufacturing Co

Essay

Simon Manufacturing Co. is planning to acquire Garfunkel Engineering in a two-step buyout. Garfunkel has 1,500,000 shares of common stock currently outstanding, and the market price is currently at $25 per share. The first step of the buyout would offer to purchase 51% of Garfunkel Engineering common stock for $28 per share. The second step would be to exchange each remaining share of Garfunkel common stock for $5 in cash and a newly issued share of Simon Manufacturing convertible preferred stock, valued at $31.00 per share.
Simon Manufacturing's investment banker has suggested, as an alternative, a single-stage buyout at $32.50 per share for all of Garfunkel's common stock.
a) What is the total cost of the two-step buyout?
b) What is the total cost of the single-step proposal?
c) If it wants to minimize the total cost of the acquisition, what should Simon Manufacturing do?