Pep Boys bidding battle – Bridgestone throws in the towel

During the closing days of last year, Bridgestone Americas announced that the Bridgestone Retail Operations subsidiary would not counter bid the latest bid from Icahn Enterprises to acquire The Pep Boys – Manny, Moe & Jack. This meant a Happy New Year for Carl Icahn, the tyre maker’s ‘arch nemesis’ in the bidding war for the automotive retail chain, who now looks set to add the brand and the 800+ Pep Boys outlets to his portfolio.

Icahn submitted a proposal on 28 December to acquire all outstanding Pep Boys shares for US$18.50 per share, or $1.03 billion in total – around $170 million more than Bridgestone originally offered in October. The $18.50 bid followed Pep Boys’ acceptance of Bridgestone’s $17.00 per share bid on 24 December.