Good point on IDTC, but I was a shareholder back then, and as I recall, it was pretty much understood that NTOP would probably NOT be distributed to shareholders, despite promises of the "possibility."
That's in distinction to A-HWP, STLW-METHA, HNCS-RETK, etc, where the intention is clearly to distribute the shares.
I copied this from Agilent's prospectus. Same wiggle room wording. In fact, almost identical to STLW's. I guess the lawyer got lazy and cut and pasted.
Hewlett-Packard has announced that it currently plans to complete its divestiture of Agilent Technologies by the middle of calendar year 2000 by distributing all of the shares of Agilent Technologies common stock owned by Hewlett-Packard to the holders of Hewlett-Packard's common stock. However, Hewlett-Packard is not obligated to complete the distribution, and the distribution may not occur by the contemplated time or at all.
Hewlett-Packard will determine the timing, structure and all terms of its distribution of our common stock in its sole discretion.
sec.gov
Obviously, anything can happen, and the lawyers made sure they covered everybody's asses. Still, it seems that when a company publicly announces a planned divestiture, it usually goes through. |
