Hedge fund battle turns mountain into molehill

Sculptor Capital Management

27/10/2023 18:27

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions
expressed are his own.)
    By Jeffrey Goldfarb
       NEW YORK, Oct 27 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Daniel Och is
backing a $720 mln sale of Sculptor, the investment firm he
founded, after buyer Rithm raised its bid again. The extra $15
mln he gets seems out of proportion to his rage against earlier
terms. Maybe sweating the small stuff is what makes millionaires
billionaires.
    Full view will be published shortly.
    Follow @jgfarb on X
    
    CONTEXT NEWS
Sculptor Capital Management said on Oct. 27 that it had accepted
a sweetened $720 million takeover bid from Rithm Capital, which
also secured the backing of the hedge fund’s founder, Daniel
Och, who had opposed the deal.
    Under terms of the revised transaction, real estate investor
Rithm will pay $12.70 a share, about 14% more than the $11.15 it
originally agreed to pay in July.
    A group led by hedge fund manager Boaz Weinstein has offered
$13.50 a share, but Sculptor’s board rejected the conditions
that accompany that proposal.
    Och agreed to drop his lawsuit against Sculptor, which
alleged that the firm had structured the deal in a way that
favored Rithm. He and fellow former executives also said they
would vote their combined 15.2% stake in favor of the Rithm
deal.

 (Editing by John Foley and Sharon Lam)
 ((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can
click on  GOLDFARB/ 
jeffrey.goldfarb@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging:
jeffrey.goldfarb.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))