If you have been following these posts, you realize that I came from a company called Smallcorp to a company called Megacorp via a merger. Megacorp bought small corp in 2002. Along those lines, Megacorp has been trying to sell 1 former smallcorp division (8 locations) that do not fit in with Megacorps strategic plan. (Yeah, as if they have one).
Anyway, they have been trying to sell these places for 3 years. Finally, after 2 possible buyers, the 3rd one may be a charm. The first offer, spring of 2004, was not good enough for Megacorp. The buyer offered 50 million and Megacorp wanted 55 million. So, the deal fell through and megacorp too a hit a bit later on writing down the value of these places to 38 million from 55 million.
About 6 months later, with another sucker on the line, the deal was supposed to go through for 37 million or so. The buyer's financing fell through and thus, no deal. S0, Megacorp took another hit and wrote off another 20 million which brought the value down to 18 million.
Wow, no wonder out stock is in the TANK. A company Megacorp thought was worth 80 million in 2002, in which they had an offer of 50 million for in 2004, that they turned down, ends up selling for 18 million, or there abouts.
Wow, shrewd eh?