Opinion ID: 2336109
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Hilton's offer to buy Mayflower stock at $19.10 a share.

Text: The facts with respect to this offer are set forth above. The price derives from a purchase by Hilton in February, 1952, of 21,409 shares of Mayflower stock at $19.10 a share from a group headed by John E. Meyers, one of the interveners in the Washington litigation. A similar offer is now made to the remaining minority stockholders in connection with but not technically as a part of the plan of merger. Upon these facts plaintiffs build an argument that the price thus voluntarily paid by Hilton, and still offered for Mayflower shares, shows the unfairness of converting one share of Mayflower into one share of Hilton. This argument assumes that the price in Hilton's offer is better evidence of value than the prices of the over-the-counter market and the values indicated by the Haslam report. This does not follow; on the contrary, the true inference would seem to be that, for whatever reason, Hilton paid for a large block of shares somewhat higher than real value. Messrs. Baxter and Fleming, two of the directors who had served under the prior management, are of the opinion that Mayflower stock is not worth $19.10 a share. After the Meyers purchase, Hilton may have determined to continue the offer to others in order to avoid any charge of having accorded the Meyers group special treatment. But Hilton's reasons for doing so are not here important; it is enough to say, as the Chancellor said, that the minority stockholders of Mayflower suffer no harm from the offer and have no ground of complaint.