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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David who wrote (17085)	5/16/2003 11:35:05 AM
From: Paul Senior	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78958

David. EBSC: I'll guess maybe $6.50 tops. Company offered a buyback of shares between $4.50-$6.00 in 2000. So it wasn't worth it for the Co. to pay more than $6, and that's when the economy was better and their business prospects were too (imo). Of course, today we're talking about a control offer (vs. a passive buyback), so that valuable and key aspect has to be reflected in the purchase offer. From the '02 proxy it looks like weighted avg. option/warrant/right exercise price was about $6.345. Lot of options expired 12/'02 though. I don't know what it would take for management and BOD (who also have options) to vote for a deal. On the one hand they'd want something for themselves. OTOH, business prospects going forward aren't that good, and buyers for the company seldom come along (as we who hold EBSC shares well know -g-). For now, I am just hoping there is a deal and that it's accepted by the BOD.

To: David who wrote (17085)	5/16/2003 2:12:20 PM
From: Grommit	Respond to of 78958

EBSC - congrats to all you patient holders. It will be interesting to see the outcome -- to see if it's valued more on cash flow or assets. Someone might just try to cherry-pick certain assets, or buy stores in a certain geographical area. If no bidders appear for the whole schebang, I wonder if they carry on, or sell of some pieces.

To: David who wrote (17085)	5/19/2003 2:31:22 PM
From: TimbaBear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78958

David Thanks for bringing EBSC to the board and congratulations on your patience in holding it! I believe the take-out should be somewhere between $7.00 to $18.00 per share. From my estimates of their cash flow, I think that your range is probably a pretty good assessment. I'm guessing close to $10.00/share. It should make a nice return from current pricing, and the cash flow gives me my margin of safety in the event an acquisition deal cannot be worked out. I'm in today. Initially I'm in for the potential pop if a fair deal is announced, but I could be in for a much longer term either if a deal does not materialize (because I like the cash flow), or if the buyer is interesting (because I like their recognition of value). Good Call! Timba

To: David who wrote (17085)	5/21/2003 9:39:44 PM
From: TimbaBear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78958

David Did you see this yet? biz.yahoo.com Looks like a bidding war could happen. TimbaBear

To: David who wrote (17085)	6/26/2003 3:58:11 PM
From: TimbaBear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78958

EBSC offered $6.00/share cash and management accepts the offer: biz.yahoo.com From what I can read into EB Acquisitions' interest, I suspect they'll offer more cash now. We'll see.... TimbBear

To: David who wrote (17085)	7/29/2003 6:45:57 PM
From: TimbaBear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 78958

David I guess you're up on the news today that BONT offered $7.00/share cash for EBSC. We were hoping for a bidding war, and it's been one so far, perhaps more to come. Even without a bidding war, seems to me that with an offer of $7.00 and a current price of $6.66 that one would get around 5% by holding just through the end of September. Better than CD rates for a whole year. BONT's balance sheet (a quick look only) seems to be able to support the new debt and EBSC's cash flow would support it, so it doesn't seem very risky to me at all. To mitigate the risk is the potential for higher bids. There would only be friction one way (getting in) as the buyer would just pay cash (so no friction getting out). Anyway, if you haven't seen the news blurb: biz.yahoo.com TimbaBear