Not typically a topic discussed here at Bleeding Heartland, but as a number of recent posts have highlighted – Iowa is indeed “open for business” and a good place for companies to thrive.  Case in point?  Casey's General Stores. 

Now, if you've been boycotting BP over the recent spill in the Gulf of Mexico you may have been forced to change your regular convenience store/gas stop.  Casey's is an Iowa based, publicly traded company and recently subject to a hostile takeover bid by a rival convenience store chain.

After the jump there's a recent blog post from the New York Times that goes into great detail.  Interested to see readers take on the issue – and possibly discussing our reliance on fossil fuels, in general. We don't hear about hostile takeover bids for Iowa companies very often!  

Excerpt from the NYT story below:

 

Alimentation Couche-Tard’s hostile offer for Casey’s General Stores, a rival convenience store operator, would appear at first glance to be a plain vanilla hostile offer. Casey’s does not have a staggered board, so all of its directors are up for election this year. This provides Couche-Tard with a standard route for any hostile bid: it can begin a tender offer and combine it with the nomination of a slate of directors to bring the target to the table.

In fact, this is what Couche-Tard has done. As we saw recently in the battle between Astellas Pharma and OSI Pharmaceuticals, this strategy can be quite effective, provided the price is compelling or competing bidders are absent.

But there is a significant quirk here that allows Casey’s much more latitude to defend itself than would be normal. According to Factset Sharkrepellent, Casey’s is one of the 12 public companies incorporated in Iowa. This changes everything.