March 16, 2015
More Examples of Social Media in M&A Transactions
Here’s a blog by Stinson Leonard Street’s Steve Quinlivan:
Occasionally we see interesting uses of social meeting in M&A transactions (See the SEC position here, and prior examples here). Some more recent examples are:
From Zillow’s acquisition of Trulia:
– Fun pushing social media and investor relations envelope
– Shareholder vote complete. Deal approved by more than 99%. More info in 8-K later
In Mitel’s acquisition of Mavenir, almost 30 tweets and retweets were disclosed in a single 425 filing (scroll to the end), including the following:
– Mitel announces definitive agreement to acquire Mavenir. $MITL $MVNR #Mitel http://ow.ly/3xqJLw
– .@MItel & @Mavenir -Strategic Winning Combination for #Wireless #Cloud #UCOMS Leadership #MWC15 $MITL $MVNR #NewMitel http://bit.ly/1wCrwY3
– RT @JonBrinton: .@Mitel & @Mavenir creates a powerful new value proposition for enterprises & mobile service providers—Rich McBee http://t.co/7NbHN8Bk0r
One would expect to see more uses like the above, but usage seems scant. It’s possible my searches do not find everything. One likely explanation is by the time you get to public announcement, the team is suffering from deal fatigue. It’s complicated enough to explain the usual rules regarding filing of SEC communications without another layer of complexity, and there is all the other important announcement matters going on.
But it really shouldn’t be that hard. A number of tweets can be drafted and approved in advance, just like shareholder and employee FAQs. One problem is a 425 filing can’t be finalized until the hyperlinks are known, but it should easy enough to circle back later in the day and complete the filing.