Company to consider Whirlpool’s sweetened bid

Monday, July 25, 2005 | 9:20 a.m.

Maytag Corp., the subject of a bidding contest, will consider a sweetened offer from Whirlpool Corp., avoiding a possible hostile takeover after earlier rebuffing the company.

The two appliance makers will begin negotiations toward a formal agreement based on Whirlpool's $18-a-share bid, Newton, Iowa-based Maytag said in a statement released late Sunday, minutes before a deadline Whirlpool set for a reply. Maytag, the No. 3 U.S. appliance maker, rejected Whirlpool's offer of $17 a share in cash and stock on July 21.

By finding the new bid "reasonably capable of being completed," Maytag reopened a contest that Ripplewood Holdings LLC appeared to have won with a May agreement to take the company private for $14 a share in cash. Whirlpool, the largest U.S. appliance maker, is vying for brands including Jenn-Air and Amana that would give it almost half the U.S. market for washers, dryers, refrigerators and ovens.

archive