QXO-Beacon saga continues
During the company’s fourth quarter earnings call, Beacon Building Products CEO Julian Francis told investors that he wouldn’t answer questions about QXO’s hostile takeover attempt
Francis, however, offered this analysis on the topic:
“Back on January 27, 2025, QXO launched an unsolicited tender offer at $124.25 per share. Our Board after consultation with its independent financial and legal advisers unanimously determined that QXO’s offer is not in the best interest of the company and its shareholders because it significantly undervalues the company and our prospects for growth and value creation. Therefore, the Board strongly recommended that shareholders not tender their shares to QXO.”
Beacon’s CEO continued: “Importantly, though, the board remains open to considering all opportunities to maximize shareholder value, and Beacon looks forward to sharing more on its future growth plans and 2028 long-term financial targets at our upcoming Investor Day on March 13, 2025.”
Meanwhile, QXO founder and CEO Brad Jacobs has shown no hesitation to talk about the takeover attempt, and he’s done so repeatedly on social media. On Friday, Jacobs penned a Linkedin open letter to the Beacon Roofing Supply team. “Our beef with Beacon is not with the employees,” he wrote. "It’s about the decisions being made at the board level.”
The billionaire entrepreneur also wrote: “If we are fortunate enough to move forward, our first priority will be listening to you.”
He added: “My teams and I have completed around 500 acquisitions across different industries, and in every case, we’ve discovered a huge wealth of fantastic ideas from employees—ideas that, when acted upon, made the business much stronger.”
See the full letter here.
In a previous Linkedin post, Jacobs laid out the case for the acquisition, saying QXO’s $124.25 per share all-cash offer — a potential $11 billion deal—represents a 37 percent premium to Beacon’s 90-day unaffected volume-weighted average price of $91.02 per share as of Nov. 15, and a higher price than Beacon’s stock has ever traded.
In late January, Beacon moved to prevent QXO’s bid by introducing a financial poison pill.
https://hbsdealer.com/beacon-adopts-defensive-strategy
# # #
HBSDealer encourages letters to the editor. Write to us at news@hbsdealer.com.
