01.11.2007 17:34:00
|
Independent Directors of ACS Respond to Allegations by Chairman Darwin Deason
The five independent members of the Board of Directors of Affiliated
Computer Services, Inc. (NYSE: ACS) today sent a letter to Darwin
Deason, Chairman of the Company’s Board of
Directors, refuting allegations he made in a press release today.
At a Board meeting today, the independent directors said they intend to
resign and will not stand for re-election, but first want to ensure
their successors are truly independent and capable of protecting the
company’s minority shareholders. Once the
process of selecting new independent directors is complete, the current
independent directors will resign immediately. They are prepared to
immediately review the independence of Mr. Deason’s
nominees and also believe shareholders should be given the opportunity
to propose additional independent directors. This was the only business
conduced at today’s Board meeting.
The letter sent by the independent directors to Mr. Deason follows.
November 1, 2007
BY FACSIMILE AND ELECTRONIC MAIL
Mr. Darwin Deason
Affiliated Computer Services, Inc.
2828 North Haskell Avenue
Dallas, Texas 75204
Dear Darwin:
From the first day that you and Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.
made a proposal to acquire ACS, the independent directors have acted
appropriately and in a manner designed to safeguard the best
interests of the company and all of its shareholders. We immediately
began a process designed to consider your offer in a fair and
balanced manner and to protect the company's minority shareholders.
Although you control in excess of 40% of the voting power of ACS,
you represent less than 10% of the outstanding shares. We must look
after the minority shareholders - even if it means you cannot get
the deal that is most advantageous to you personally. From the
outset, you have attempted to subvert the process in order to
prevent superior alternatives to your proposal from being
consummated.
On March 20, 2007, when you and Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.
publicly disclosed your proposal to acquire ACS, we first learned of
the Exclusivity Agreement that you had previously entered into with
Cerberus. On March 21, 2007, after lengthy discussion, the Board of
Directors of ACS, through its lead director, advised you that the
Board was concerned with the Exclusivity Agreement between you and
Cerberus and requested that the agreement be voided so that the
Board would have the ability to deal with all parties (including you
and Cerberus) who might be interested in a transaction involving the
company. You refused. The Special Committee (which was formed to
consider all strategic alternatives available to ACS, including your
proposal), after extensive discussions with Lazard Freres & Co. LLC,
its independent financial advisor, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP,
its independent legal advisor, also concluded that, with the
Exclusivity Agreement in place, it could not effectively consider
all of the company's strategic alternatives, including a transaction
involving a third party other than Cerberus. Also, the Special
Committee and its advisors were not comfortable with a "go-shop"
here given the terms of your employment agreement, your voting power
and the fact that potentially interested parties would be deterred
given your partnership with Cerberus.
As a result, the Special Committee insisted that the Exclusivity
Agreement be voided. Unfortunately, for almost three months until
June 10, 2007, you and Cerberus refused to in any way modify the
Exclusivity Agreement in response to the Special Committee's
concerns. Your self-serving conduct had a material adverse impact on
the process of considering strategic alternatives, including your
own offer. (Several parties who had expressed an interest in a
transaction with ACS were not willing to proceed with the
Exclusivity Agreement in place.)
Nevertheless, the Special Committee and its advisors have carefully
evaluated your offer, as well as other potential alternatives that
still exist and, as you are well aware, we were prepared to deliver
our recommendations with respect to all of the alternatives that may
be available to the company at the next regularly scheduled board
meeting. In addition, and as you know, we have engaged you and
Cerberus in an effort not only to deal with the Exclusivity
Agreement, but also to modify the proposal in a way that would make
sense for all of the company's shareholders, including increasing
the offer price to a level that could be supported. You refused.
Any suggestion that the Special Committee should have rolled over
and simply agreed to your self-interested proposal without having an
opportunity to consider alternative transactions would be
irresponsible. In fact, several significant shareholders publicly
agreed with the position of the Special Committee and the inadequacy
of your proposal. In an effort to avoid any misunderstandings, we
also would like to point out that we did respond (through our
financial advisor) to ACS shareholders who made contact with the
Special Committee regarding the process.
Even after entering into the Waiver Agreement on June 10, 2007, you
and your management team have worked hard to make it difficult for
any other potential buyer to have access to the same information
provided to Cerberus and, therefore, to proceed with a proposal that
would provide ACS shareholders with greater value than your
proposal. (As you are well aware, the actions of your management
team caused one significant potential strategic buyer to walk-away
and, very recently, your management team refused even to engage with
another significant potential strategic buyer - despite their
interest.) Your interest only in a transaction in which you would
participate on the buy side and management's interest in retaining
their jobs (all at the expense of ACS shareholders) consistently
delayed the process and made it virtually impossible to implement an
even modestly effective process, which has worked to the detriment
of ACS shareholders. There are countless examples of your
interference with the process. We are sure you recall the time you
directed management to refuse to meet with senior executives of a
large industry bidder (who had made a proposal to acquire the
company for an amount greater than that included in your proposal)
who had flown hours to meet with management. Or, the attempts by you
and ACS management to interfere with the ability of the Special
Committee to meet with the company's regular outside counsel.
Your carefully choreographed power play Tuesday evening to coerce
the independent directors of ACS into resigning on the spot is
consistent with your continuing refusal to understand that the
Board's fiduciary duties are to all shareholders - not just to you.
Your ultimatum: resign in one hour or I will go to the press and
smear your reputations - was a remarkable piece of bullying and
thuggery, and it almost worked. We also find it curious that your
counsel in connection with your proposal, Cravath, Swaine & Moore
LLP, is now serving as the company's outside counsel. In this
capacity, Cravath, your personal counsel, is taking a lead role in
removing the very directors who refused to go along with your
proposal. We cannot understand how you and ACS management could
become comfortable with this blatant conflict.
You have not only interfered with the mandate of the Special
Committee (to the detriment of our shareholders), but have made it
impossible for us to continue to effectively serve as directors of
ACS. (You have, over the past few months, privately encouraged the
directors to keep the process of considering strategic alternatives
going; however, your current actions are inconsistent with these
conversations.) Given the extraordinary powers you have under the
terms of your employment agreement, your actions (particularly over
the past few months), as well as the actions of your hand-picked
management team, and the tone that you have set at the company, we
do not see how we, or any other truly independent directors, could
properly discharge their fiduciary duties. We could fire you and the
entire management team, but that would not help our shareholders,
customers or employees. Rather, it would rip the Company apart and
cause a lengthy fight and period of uncertainty from which the
Company would be unlikely to recover. As a result, we have decided
after much discussion among ourselves that the best way for us to
discharge our fiduciary duties is to resign in favor of a new
majority of independent directors.
As you are aware, we have more than 30 years of collective service
with ACS, have participated in the significant growth of the company
and care deeply about the company and its shareholders and
employees. You have identified four potential Board candidates, and
we are prepared to meet with them as early as tomorrow to determine
if they are truly independent and capable of protecting minority
shareholders. We also would welcome any suggestions for new
independent directors from our shareholders. Although our efforts
over the years to add independent directors to the Board have been
met with resistance, we continue to believe that having strong
independent directors is critical. Once the process of vetting
independent director candidates is complete, it will be with great
relief that we will immediately step down as directors.
Very truly yours,
/s/ Robert B. Holland
/s/ J. Livingston Kosberg
/s/ Dennis McCuistion
Robert B. Holland, III
J. Livingston Kosberg
Dennis McCuistion
/s/ Joseph P. O'Neill
/s/ Frank A. Rossi
Joseph P. O'Neill
Frank A. Rossi
cc: Lynn Blodgett
John Rexford
Bill Deckelman
Der finanzen.at Ratgeber für Aktien!
Wenn Sie mehr über das Thema Aktien erfahren wollen, finden Sie in unserem Ratgeber viele interessante Artikel dazu!
Jetzt informieren!
Wenn Sie mehr über das Thema Aktien erfahren wollen, finden Sie in unserem Ratgeber viele interessante Artikel dazu!
Jetzt informieren!
JETZT DEVISEN-CFDS MIT BIS ZU HEBEL 30 HANDELN
Handeln Sie Devisen-CFDs mit kleinen Spreads. Mit nur 100 € können Sie mit der Wirkung von 3.000 Euro Kapital handeln.
82% der Kleinanlegerkonten verlieren Geld beim CFD-Handel mit diesem Anbieter. Sie sollten überlegen, ob Sie es sich leisten können, das hohe Risiko einzugehen, Ihr Geld zu verlieren.
Nachrichten zu Xerox Corp.mehr Nachrichten
Keine Nachrichten verfügbar. |