Negligible Victories At Pirate Capital

Posted by Bess Levin, Sep 27, 2007, 11:03am

michael_bolton2.jpgCongratulations to Tom Hudson, whose hedge fund ended its proxy battle with Angelica, a healthcare linens company, after Angelica kowtowed to the Jolly Rogers’ demand to explore a possible sale. In July, the Pirate team, which owns approximately 9.8 percent of Angelica, told the firm to put itself on the block or prepare to go to war, and nominated two of its own to the board. Angelica stated yesterday that has given its financial adviser Morgan Joseph* the green light to pursue a sale. Hudson then withdrew his nominees for the board, based on the assumption that Morgan Joseph will have time to work on a deal, what with inner-office bitching between associates and analysts taking up a large portion of the day.

Though a previous proxy fight with energy company Aquila saw Pirate distributing buttons and t-shirts, circumstances of late, including but not limited to managed assets falling to $375 million from last year’s $1.802 billion, rendered the free-gift with purchase deal too costly. Why nobody thought to offer burned copies of Michael Bolton’s greatest hits is beyond us. Hindsight.

Pirate Ceases Fire on Angelica [HedgeFund.net]

*heh.

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Posted in: Hedge Funds, Pirate Capital, Two parts water, one part Michael Bolton DNA

Comments

Posted by Fake Rush Limbaugh, Sep 27, 2007 11:39AM

If Ann Coulter put on some weight I think that is what she'd look like.

Posted by Former Eye-Patch Wearing Joker, Sep 27, 2007 11:49AM

This is Tom's opinion of Morgan Joseph (re: Angelica 13D 7.13.07):

With reference to the response letter of Angelica Corporation (“Angelica” or the “Company”) of yesterday, we see the response as every bit as opaque as the Company’s purported strategy for moving forward. The response informs us that the Company has extended the engagement of Morgan Joseph & Company (“Morgan Joseph”), the same firm that has apparently been spearheading as consultants since February 21, 2006 what we see as the Company’s recent failing corporate initiatives. Our recent demands clearly did not mean that the Company should retain what we believe to be the same ineffectual investment banking firm it had already retained, and then advise the marketplace of the firm’s apparent muddled mandate. We demanded that the Company engage a nationally recognized investment banking firm that would focus on increasing shareholder value through extraordinary transactions such as the sale of the Company. Morgan Joseph has apparently been involved with the Company almost 17 months, and it is not apparent to us that this engagement has done the Company any good, and further not apparent that the engagement has moved the Company any closer to a sale. So why extend the engagement, and muddle the firm’s mandate with whatever else the firm has been doing for the Company over the last 17 months?

Posted by E, Sep 27, 2007 12:00PM

do you think tom muddled his mandate when he levered up and concentrated his fund in just 4 different names? What about his mandate as a husband and human being? For society's sake, let us hope that he doesn't muddle his son and turn him into a serial killer or worse, a hedge fund manager.

Posted by Patrick Bateman, Sep 27, 2007 12:03PM

E, why not both a hedge fund manager and a serial killer? It works for me.

Posted by Another former joker, Sep 27, 2007 1:03PM

A little bird told me that contractors helped themselves to the contents of Mr. Hudson's St. Thomas home because he refused to pay them.

Posted by All that glory, Sep 28, 2007 1:43AM

Please don't glorify Mr. Hudson's St. Thomas residence. It's a one bedroom condo. That just makes the situation all that more egregious. The man has $75mm (down from over $100mm) and refuses to pay people that's worked for him. Apparently Hudson has a habit of not paying for past work. He refuses to pay his analysts for work and P&L they've generated for him. He only paid them for what for he thinks they will deliver in the future. Of course, the man prove to have been misguided in his estimates of others' worth given his inflated ego...and the rest is history. I don't know anyone else that would have made the trade to implode his own fund instead of paying his analysts market value. What a pathetic miserable being.

Posted by Scoeone, Oct 03, 2007 12:39AM

couldn't happen to a finer group of jerks and that includes their x-trader -I'll celebrate when they go under-

Posted by ellen, Oct 03, 2007 7:56PM

I hear Tom is actually marrying this one... which makes her wife number 4

Posted by anon, Oct 04, 2007 1:37PM

wasn't she also married for a "little while" when she met her present boss? this stroy just gets stranger and stranger. i'm a formerly in the know about most of this stuff and it is right on target.

Posted by sj, Oct 11, 2007 10:39AM

yeah, you're right, she was married! from what I hear, they are equally creepy and deserve each other. I thought his last wife was really cool and everyone says he is just a laughingstock now. Every analyst I mention him to just cracks up laughing.

Posted by anon, Oct 11, 2007 6:45PM

i know his last wife also, she didn't deserve the raw deal she got. she is just trying to keep it all together for the poor son. i don't feel anything for Tom, he's proved himself to be an asshole. i really feel for his son, what kind of role model is daddy?? all of this is just my opinion though, in case the lawyers call...i don't know any of this for a fact.

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