It's Happening C^RT Fans!!

[Liz]

The same kind of machinations go on in everyday businesses, we just don't see them or pay attention to them. I have worked at firms undergoing reorganization and it's no prettier than what we're seeing as CART gets its house in order. One year the firm had to take out a special loan to pay our Christmas bonuses, and one firm had to bring in an outside financial manager as the people in charge were inclined to spend the firm's assets on huge parties and redecoration of their offices instead of actually running the firm. And don't even get me started on the Faceless Clones who took over a fourishing mid-range firm and within two years had driven almost all the best people away including all their clients. Turned out they weren't interested in running a business, only in acquiring one.

So while this looks unusually confusing and messy and disastrous, it is really quite common. They have some good people working on it now and things will come out all right.

[Jay]

Reminds me a lot of the debacle we went through in Ottawa last year to save our Senators... Back in January when the team missed payroll everyone was sure the team was either going under or going to move. A new owner expressed interest back in January...made his bid official in April, then there were a ton of legal issues to sort out - which took months, and the deal has only been signed sealed and made official, finally done and over with today, at the end of August. ..and this was one private company changing hands, not a public company going private.

[paul-collins]

Originally posted by Tailwind
About the wipers...if you could hook up little sprayers like on high end passenger car headlights, we could eliminate the tear-offs...

Imagine the wind buffetting to which the helmets would be subjected. the driver's necks would have to counteract all that extra force, if you were to put wipers on their helmets. It's a cute idea, but a no-go from where I stand.

[macdaddy]

None of this post is "new" news, but here's something from AutoSport...

On Sunday at Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Kalkhoven confirmed that OWRS is proceeding with its acquisition attempt. "Things are progressing, forward," he said. "The Board has three options. They can say 'No,' 'Yes,' or 'Yes, but...' Right now we're at 'Yes, but… Hopefully the board will make a decision soon, they'll put a press release out and it will be positive. But those are three hopefullys."

The process could be slowed by Jon Vannini, a part-time racer who has competed in CART's Barber Dodge Pro Series and owns around 9 percent of CART's outstanding public shares. Vannini is reportedly considering starting legal action against CART based on what he perceives as mismanagement of the company, causing the share value to plummet.

[Liz]

I have heard Forsythe has offered him some kind of position in CART (as what, I can't imagine). Wonder if this is why?

[Muzza]

Can someone please tell Vannini to get lost? This guy has been "a pain in the pooper" since he first showed up.

[macdaddy]

There seems to have been significant trading at 1PM today.

[Omega99]

Well, as it stands, CART doesn't havbe the money to complete next season, but if theycould survive long enough for OWRS to take over, then it might be ok.

[vatuloa]

Why Don't Forsythe buy Jon Vannini's shares at whatever he wants this does not commite him to a full takover at the price he pays.

[Dov]

Originally posted by Omega99
Well, as it stands, CART doesn't havbe the money to complete next season, but if theycould survive long enough for OWRS to take over, then it might be ok.

IF the rumors are true that OWRS wants to pump just enough money into CART for it to survive through 2004 only to make a deal with the devil (TG) in 2005, then I would rather see ChampCars die with some dignity!!!

[Emfa]

Originally posted by vatuloa
Why Don't Forsythe buy Jon Vannini's shares at whatever he wants this does not commite him to a full takover at the price he pays.

Shareholders are limited to a 15% maximum holding. Forsythe had to get a special board exemption to increase his holding to 23%. Besides, Mr. Vannini has to want to sell.

[Flatspot]

On the other side...Forsythe doesn't need to buy his shares for more than the tender offer. He just makes a side deal (of course nothing less than arms length)to provide an after the fact transaction which satisfies Vannini.

The thing that really bums me out is that Vannini is the one that forced Heitzler out (right or wrong doesn't matter) and was the primary selector the current management and now he's complaining about the job their doing.

This isn't the first company he's done it to either. I was reading some SEC stuff where he dropped a proxy fight he waged in another company and settled for a return of the attorney's fees he had spent. It was $400,000. Reality is CART can't sustain that kind of a fight and I hope Vannini doesn't do it.

I'm not sure what good it would do him anyway. If he doesn't allow the buyout CART goes bankrupt and he loses it all . With the buyout at least he gets something. Am I missing something?

[vatuloa]

If CART goes bankrupt what is to stop the new group setting up a new company to contract Teams, venues, TV etc.

[indycool]

Vatuloa, there's nothing to stop it and nothing to stop them from going their own way and doing it right now. Some think they will if the agreement is not reached on their terms, i.e., the lowball offer.

As far as merging with TG in '05, I don't see it happening, although Russo alluded to that as an aim in a backward sort of way.

Supposed to be a BoD meeting today.

[Crash Test]

Q. Does anyone know who is left standing on the board of directors these days?

PS. So long as CART survives they will keep coming to the coast, makes economical sense to everyone... yee haa

[macdaddy]

The BoD consists of Chris Pook, Carl Haas, James Hardymon, James Henderson, Ralph Sanchez and Fred Tucker.

[indycool]

There was a trade of 200,000 shares for a buck each around 1 p.m. Wednesday. Some speculation it could be Haas unloading because he held 200,500 shares. Nothing on EDGAR yet. If it was Haas, I'd look for him to leave the BoD in short order.

[James Wilkenson]

Originally posted by macdaddy
The BoD consists of Chris Pook, Carl Haas, James Hardymon, James Henderson, Ralph Sanchez and Fred Tucker.

Macdaddy.....you got a rundown on who these cat's are?

does Ralph Sanchez own Homestead?

[indycool]

James,
Pook is the former Long Beach originator and is CEO.
Haas is a car owner and importer of Lola cars and parts.
Hardymon and Henderson, I don't have background on, but it's probably available at CART.com.
Tucker is a Motorola executive.
Sanchez promoted the old CART races at Tamiami, the old IMSA races downtown and the old CART races downtown, built Homestead, sold his shares in it to ISC.
So far in the last few months, Patrick and Andretti declined to re-run for BoD election, an accountant type named Robert Biggs was named to the BoD and quit a month later and Walker resigned from the BoD, leaving the total at six guys.

[Tailwind]

This just came up on Champweb

According to this SEC filing, CART is going to allow a party (ie Russo, Gentilozzi), to purchase over 15% of the stock, without triggering the poison pill.

However, if they purchase the stock, and decide to not continue with their bid at purchasing CART, they have 2 days to sell the stock back.

Basically, it is just another step forward in the legal side of things. With no announcements coming from today's BOD meeting, one must speculate that everything is going as planned...

[indycool]

Well, that's Champweb's take that it's "another step forward."
IMO, what it means is that there's no deal with Vannini, the BoD doesn't think the votes are there for the buyout and they've opened it up to a full-throttle proxy fight....not "everything is going as planned."

[Tailwind]

Gentilozzi is a part of OWRS so doesn’t that bring more stock ownership under the control of OWRS? If the BOD didn’t want OWRS to end up running the series then wouldn’t they have stopped the stock purchase with the Poison Pill? Who would the proxy fight be with? No one, to my knowledge, has stepped up to the plate since OWRS. Vannini isn’t part of OWRS, but he doesn’t carry enough weight on his own. Can he oppose the buyout and prevent it from happening? :confused:

[Jay]

indycool, nobody expected you to think it was anything good .

We'll have to wait and see what it all means... I barely have time to read the news these days, so my attitude has almost become: 'hand me the final headline'.

[Flatspot]

This filing could be the BOD allowing, as Vatuloa suggested, a current shareholder (say Forsythe) to aquire more shares than at the last amendment. Allowing him to do this puts him in a position to make a private transaction with Vannini for his shares at something greater than current market. This would make Vannini go away and allow C^RT to conclude their deal without a costly legal battle or the threat of one. That large shareholder (assuming Forsythe again) essentially recovers his outlay for this by taking a larger stake in OWRS or a myriad of other possibilities on the backside.

[macdaddy]

Last Wednesday I had posted,
"There seems to have been significant trading at 1PM today."

I never really noticed until now, that there was significantly more trading on Thursday than on Wednesday...