Beacon board rejects QXO offer, again
Herndon, Virginia-based Beacon, the building products distribution giant with 587 branches, announced Thursday morning that its board of directors unanimously rejects an unsolicited tender offer from QXO.
QXO’s offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Beacon common stock for $124.25 per share in cash “undervalues the company and its prospects for growth,” Beacon said. (Shares of BECN were trading at around $120 on Thursday morning.)
The Beacon Board said it recommends Beacon shareholders do not tender their shares Into QXO’s offer.
The announcement is the latest development in Beacon’s effort to resist a hostile takeover from QXO. In late January, the Connecticut-based startup led by Brad Jacobs took his offer directly to shareholders of Beacon. That move was met with a limited duration stockholder rights agreement — a poison pill — that would issue one preferred share purchase right for each outstanding share of Beacon.
The Beacon announcement was followed by a response from QXO "We have made a very compelling offer, and Beacon should let its shareholders decide what is in their best interest," stated Brad Jacobs, chairman and CEO of QXO. The offer—with enterprise value of about $11 billion—marks a 37 percent premium to Beacon's 90-day unaffected volume-weighted average price of $91.02 per share as of Nov. 15, QXO has repeatedly pointed out.
QXO, according to its own description, plans to become a tech-forward leader in the $800 billion building products distribution industry. The company is targeting tens of billions of dollars of annual revenue in the next decade through accretive acquisitions and organic growth.
