Thursday, September 27, 2007

Pro-sellout shareholder of i2 elects second board member

Amalgamated Gadget, a major shareholder of i2, has now elected its second board member, one David L. Pope. According to the SEC filing, Pope is employed by an affiliate of Amalgamated, which "acts as investment manager for R2 Top Hat, Ltd., which owns all of the issued and outstanding shares of the Series B Preferred Stock." Earlier this month, Amalgamated openly called for i2 to find a buyer.

An astute reader also informs me that i2 has taken down from its website all open job postings for customer-facing positions. He notes that previously, i2 had consistently been running 30-50 of these jobs at any one time. It's all speculations, but it could be an indication that the company is trying to reduce costs by not filling open positions, possibly to improve earnings prior to negotiation with potential buyers.

Update, Oct. 4: A second major shareholder, SAC Capital Advisors LLC, has just increased its holdings of i2 shares to 8.9% and promptly joined the call for sale of the company. At the same time, i2 is reporting that it has narrowed the list of finalists in its search for a new CEO and expects to name the winner in 30-45 days. If so, the winner may find him/herself with a very short resume entry.

Update, Oct. 15: The job postings now appear to be back online on i2's website. There are 51 jobs currently open, a level similar to that in the recent past. So, maybe the absence of postings was due to a website glitch.

Update, Oct. 17: Barrons is reporting that another major shareholder, SAC Capital, now holds 1.9 million shares (8.9%) of i2 and is also calling for sale of the company.

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Major i2 shareholder calls for sale of i2

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