Here’s something different. With the Samsung C&T – Cheil Industries merger vote coming in fast, Samsung has taken a pretty interesting way of garnering votes:
“Home visits, text messages, front-page newspaper advertisements and even hand-delivered watermelons are Samsung’s weapon of choice in its bitter war against U.S. hedge fund Elliott Associates LP.”
Yes, according to the WSJ, Samsung has just resorted to watermelons to win votes.
Whether or not the value of these watermelons make up for the nearly $8 billion Elliott Management claims will be lost is still unclear. At 2014 prices (15,000 won/watermelon), that would mean Samsung must hand-deliver 600 million watermelons to shareholders, which would’ve been hilarious.
On a more serious note, Samsung has also taken the battle to the press, taking front-page ads such as this one found by the WSJ:
‘We desperately plead with Samsung C&T shareholders … Must the future of Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries be hindered like this?’
Which apparently appear beside anti-semitic stories such as this.
Whether or not those stories came from Samsung is all up to speculation, what is clear though is that despite locking in 31% of votes, Chiel’s takeover bid is still a long way from the two-thirds it needs to become a sure thing. Nearly 60% of shareholders – comprised mostly by retail investors and foreign institutions – are currently undecided, and thanks to proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis, ISS, and two of their Korean counterparts, Elliott’s bloc just got a little stronger.
With just one day left until the vote and few options left for Samsung’s founding family, things can only get nastier over in Seoul. Stay tuned.
Photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography via Flickr