Jane Harman family's company target of "questionable bids purportedly from the Middle East"?

[cascadiance]

This story just flew by me when checking stock information today. This may all be meaningless, but one wonders. With Jane Harman's power plays with AIPAC, intelligence posts, etc. recently, it makes you wonder what might be motivating the rumors of taking over Harman International, which her husband is the chairman emeritus of. And some mysterious entity from around Dubai someplace... Hmmm....

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINN206805420090720?rpc=44

UPDATE 4-Harman International denies receiving buyout offer
Mon Jul 20, 2009 4:38pm EDT

* Harman says not familiar with party claiming to make bid

* Stock down 17 pct after jumping over 30 pct premarket

* Incident echoes Textron case in April (Adds comment on news media, closing share prices, 2nd byline)

By Franklin Paul and Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) - Harman International Industries Inc (HAR.N) denied receiving a buyout offer that sent its shares skyrocketing on Monday, as it became the latest U.S. company to be targeted by questionable bids purportedly from the Middle East.

The incident is similar to one in April when an alleged offer from a United Arab Emirates-Kuwait consortium for diversified U.S. manufacturer Textron Inc (TXT.N) sent its shares up 47 percent. No deal ever materialized.

In both cases, a person identifying himself as a fund manager had called newsrooms touting the stories, but refusing to give contact numbers.

Several media outlets on Sunday received faxed statements that said a private investment firm called Arabian Peninsula Group (APG) planned to buy Harman for $49.50 a share -- about double the high-end audio equipment maker's Friday close of $25.18.

...

[MADem]

1. Sounds like someone is trying to manipulate the value of stock. nt

[cascadiance]

2. It might all be completely coincidental. But I thought it might be worth "watching" for a bit...

To see if there's something that's going on to motivate these "false bids".

It's also interesting to see Brad Blog's comments on the Harman family's wealth and investments in the health care industry too. Again, might be completely coincidental, but I'll be checking this for the next few days.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=7266

Small Victory for Long-Term Single-Payer Strategy
House Labor and Education Committee Votes to Permit States to Adopt More Progressive Health Plans...

Guest Blogged by Ernest A. Canning

On Friday the House Labor and Education Committee voted 27 - 19 to adopt an amendment offered by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) to HR 3200 , the hybrid "public option" health care legislation that leaves in place the current multi-payer system. The Kucinich amendment was supported by 13 of the Committee's Republicans. It was opposed by the Committee's chairman, George Miller (D-CA). If it survives a House floor vote and a House/Senate Conference Committee, the Kucinich amendment would insure that efforts to secure single-payer systems at the state level would not be preempted by federal law.

...

As Marcy Winograd, a progressive Democratic candidate for the Congressional seat now held by Rep. Jane Harmon (D-CA), notes in "Single Payers Crashing the Gates", the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) finds that the "hybrid" public option plan advanced by Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) would increase federal outlays by a trillion dollars over ten years because most of taxpayer monies under the plan would go not to health care but to what I have called the unnecessary "parasites" --- for-profit insurance carriers and HMOs. According to Wendell Potter, a former CIGNA communications director turned whistleblower, the culprit includes Wall Street which demands a high return on its insurance company investments.

...

As revealed by Paul Kane of the Washington Post, 30 lawmakers involved in drafting health care legislation have a $15 million stake in the health care industry. The wife of Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT) "serves on the boards of four health-care companies, receiving more than $200,000 in salary and stock from her service in 2008....The family of Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.)...held at least $3.2 million in more than 20 health-care companies at the end of last year....Harman, whose husband, Sidney, is the founder of electronics-maker Harman International Industries, is one of the wealthiest members of Congress, with a minimum net worth of almost $120 million."

...

[MADem]

3. It might not be a family member, or even a board member.

It could be someone with a big chunk of the stock who needs money in a hurry.

[cascadiance]

7. Interesting that Goldman Sachs and another firm "walked away" from buying Harman in 2007...

Another interesting name after Harman's business? Hmm....

http://www.dealerscope.com/article/harman-international-week-denied-reports-had-received-buyout-bid-middle-eastern-investment-firm-410128_1.html

Harman Denies Buyout
Stephen Silver
Jul 22, 2009

Harman International this week denied reports that it had received a buyout bid from a Middle Eastern investment firm. According to the New York Times, several news organizations received a fax last week that a possibly fictitious firm, Arabian Peninsula Group, was planning a takeover bid.

"The Company has not received such communications and is not familiar with any parties claiming to make such a solicitation," Harman said in a statement posted to its Web site.

A pair of private-equity firms, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the private-equity division of Goldman Sachs, walked away from plans to buy out Harman in 2007.

[grasswire]

4. my take? someone's jerking her leash

It's the equivalent of an envelope of anthrax. "Remember, Jane. We can ruin you in an eyewink."

[cascadiance]

5. That's what I'm wondering about. If someone's trying to subtly say "do something we want"...

Especially since the source is from the middle east someplace. Then again, as MADem notes, it could be some major stockholder just trying to manipulate the stock some to cash in on some share manipulations too. It's just interesting that Harman is targeted for this sort of thing... I'm wondering why they as a company might be more apt to be a target of this thing just purely for financial purposes.

[laststeamtrain]

6. K & R - n/t.

[KoKo]

8. Harman is a wierd bird. Sometimes I wish Pelosi hadn't replaced her with Sylvester Reyes

(who seems an idiot who can't speak his way out of a box to support Dems) while Harman is well spoken and has a formidable presence. Yet...she was said to be in AIPAC's pocket and that would seem to make some sense.

[cascadiance]

9. I don't trust Reyes either... He covered up stuff during Duke Cunningham investigation/litigation..

I think Pelosi, etc. must like him because he stays "quiet" to the point of not helping us much with transparency. Secrecy and avoidance seemed to be Pelosi's MO as well.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/07/critics-slam-in.html

Harman had too many messed up priorities in my book (AIPAC, helping Bushco coverup the NY Times story on domestic spying, that other "minority report" type of legislation she tried to pass a couple of years ago, and not supporting single payer like Marcy Winograd would.

[TexasObserver]

10. Recommend