If there was a greeting card for every situation, this one would say: Sorry, but it’s about to get ugly.
American Greetings Corp., the world’s largest publicly traded greeting card company, and the owner of Care Bears and Holly Hobbie properties, is caught in the middle of a two-family feud.
In one corner is the Weiss family, which controls American Greetings and wants to take it private. In the other corner is Daniel Tisch, heir to the founders of hotel chain and conglomerate Loews Corp.
Yesterday, Tisch, who owns 6.2 percent of American Greetings’ stock through his TowerView investment company, which manages Tisch family money, blasted a deal led by American Greetings’ CEO Zev Weiss to take the Cleveland company private for $18.35 a share.
In a terse filing with regulators, Tisch said TowerView intends to vote its 1.79 million shares against the transaction.
Last month, American Greetings’ board agreed to be taken private in an $878 million deal that also benefits Zev’s father Morry Weiss, the chairman of American Greetings, and his brother and American Greetings chief operating officer, Jeffrey.
The offer includes a 15-cent-a-share dividend, plus $18.20 a share in cash, which represents a 27 percent premium to the shares on Sept. 25, the day before the Weiss family made their first overture.
The Weiss family, which has run the company since 1987, offered $17.18 a share for the company in September, and bumped it up to $17.50 in January. The company was founded in 1906 by Morry Weiss’ wife’s grandfather, a Polish immigrant who sold cards from a horse-drawn cart.
Tisch didn’t say in his letter why he opposed the deal, but in previous letters to the special committee of the board established to evaluate the offer, Tisch said he felt the company was at a “pivot point” that would “reap large reward for continuing shareholders.”
A person familiar with Tisch’s thinking told The Post that he thinks the going-private discussions have held the stock down this year at a time when stocks in general have been soaring.
American Greetings’ shares are up 9 percent this year, compared to 16 percent for the S&P 500. The stock, which closed yesterday at $18.43, has been trading in that range since that deal was accepted.
A spokeswoman for American Greetings didn’t respond to a request for comment.
American Greetings, which competes with Hallmark Cards, has been struggling amid a move to e-cards. It recently reported a 6.1 percent increase in annual revenues to $1.7 billion, but also reduced staffing levels in the latest fiscal year by about 2,100 jobs.
In his filing yesterday, Tisch also blasted the fairness opinion provided by the board’s investment bank, Peter J. Solomon, calling it “flawed.” Tisch asked that the bank “withdraw” the opinion, which stands to help Peter J. Solomon earn $6 million, including a $2 million fee to be paid “contingent upon consummation of the merger.”
A spokeswoman for the boutique bank declined to comment.