Maybe it’s time to add a new weapon to the old M&A arsenal of poison pills, dawn raids, and white knights — the corporate blog. You could call it the WordPress Hug.
Late on Monday, Cisco’s Ned Hooper used the company’s blog to insist it had offered “a very good price” for Tandberg, after some shareholders of the Norwegian videoconferencing company said the price was too low. (See his full post here.)
The “Driving Conversations” blog of General Motors Europe has also been a source of news on the long-running (and now abandoned) talks to sell Opel, hosting posts from GM’s chief negotiator, John Smith. (See some of his posts on the topic here.)
So could blogging become a major channel of communication on M&A transactions? Big corporations have enthusiastically adopted it for other uses- for example, “Randy’s Journal”, a Boeing blog, has a following in the industry and among aeroplane enthusiasts.
But it is hard to believe this trend would be welcomed by some financial regulators — like the UK’s Takeover Panel, which banned advertising during takeover battles more than 20 years ago.
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