Raw Meat

The shareholders of OSI Restaurant Partners yesterday approved the amended merger agreement for the company to be acquired by an investor group consisting of Bain Capital Partners, LLC, Catterton Management Company, LLC, OSI's founders and its executive management.  OSI did not disclose the exact vote in its press release announcing the results, but it has been reported that the merger agreement would not have been approved had OSI not acted to lower the threshold required vote a few weeks ago.  OSI now expects the transaction to now close on June 19, 2007.  Presumably, the extra time is to rearrange the financing for the transaction. 

I've written a lot on this deal (see posts Bloomin' Onion, Bloomin' Onion (Redux), Bloomin' Onion Part III, Free Food! OSI Restaurant Partners Shareholder Meeting Today, and Games People Play).  I was also quoted yesterday in a piece in the St. Petersburg Times (OSI is headquartered there) where I stated that this deal is "an interesting case study in management buyouts with private equity and how the process can be, for lack of a better word, manipulated . . . ."  More specifically, I believe that management's undue influence on the OSI sale process left the OSI shareholders with a Hobson's choice -- giving shareholders no other option than to accept this bid. The St. Petersburg article chronicles management's impropriety here, and its effect is also illustrated by Institutional Shareholder Services statement recommending the transaction: 

We recognize the shortcomings in the process and the conflicts of interest of management and founders . . . . but given the downside of a failed transaction resulting in a loss of premium and likely continued deterioration of fundamentals, support for the transaction is warranted.

Hopefully, OSI was at least nice enough to serve their soon to be former shareholders some tasty, free food at the meeting yesterday.  They deserve that at least.