Waterstone's owner gives more time to shareholders
HMV has extended the deadline for Ottakar's shareholders to accept its£100 million offer for the bookseller by a further 18 days.
Shareholders now have until November 18 at 1pm to accept the 440p-a-share bid. On acceptances received so far and its own shareholding in Ottakar's, HMV now speaks for 65.76 per cent of the company.
The Office of Fair Trading is investigating the proposed takeover and is expected to decide by the end of this month if the deal should be referred to the Competition Commission. HMV's Waterstone's business and Ottakar's would have a combined market share of 23.6 per cent and sales of£620 million.
A spokesman for HMV Group said the retailer is confident that it will pull off the deal and that the OFT will conclude that there are no competition issues.
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