-----BEGIN PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE----- Proc-Type: 2001,MIC-CLEAR Originator-Name: keymaster@town.hall.org Originator-Key-Asymmetric: MFkwCgYEVQgBAQICAgADSwAwSAJBALeWW4xDV4i7+b6+UyPn5RtObb1cJ7VkACDq pKb9/DClgTKIm08lCfoilvi9Wl4SODbR1+1waHhiGmeZO8OdgLUCAwEAAQ== MIC-Info: RSA-MD5,RSA, X2T8+FMtgrjpGkMHDz96Z4gi9geTfbhF2PnQN2Ym/i+0XBPu0elPau9mPu6e0K1C v/gAtMGqELH9OhDb75QI5g== 0000922423-95-000055.txt : 19950417 0000922423-95-000055.hdr.sgml : 19950417 ACCESSION NUMBER: 0000922423-95-000055 CONFORMED SUBMISSION TYPE: SC 13D/A PUBLIC DOCUMENT COUNT: 3 FILED AS OF DATE: 19950414 SROS: NONE SUBJECT COMPANY: COMPANY DATA: COMPANY CONFORMED NAME: MARIETTA CORP CENTRAL INDEX KEY: 0000792969 STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION: SERVICES-BUSINESS SERVICES, NEC [7389] IRS NUMBER: 161074992 STATE OF INCORPORATION: NY FISCAL YEAR END: 0930 FILING VALUES: FORM TYPE: SC 13D/A SEC ACT: 1934 Act SEC FILE NUMBER: 005-38479 FILM NUMBER: 95529011 BUSINESS ADDRESS: STREET 1: 37 HUNTINGTON ST CITY: CORTLAND STATE: NY ZIP: 13045 BUSINESS PHONE: 6077536746 MAIL ADDRESS: STREET 1: 37 HUNTINGTON STREET CITY: CORTLAND STATE: NY ZIP: 13045 FILED BY: COMPANY DATA: COMPANY CONFORMED NAME: DICKSTEIN PARTNERS INC CENTRAL INDEX KEY: 0000922415 STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION: UNKNOWN SIC - 0000 [0000] IRS NUMBER: 133537972 STATE OF INCORPORATION: NY FISCAL YEAR END: 1231 FILING VALUES: FORM TYPE: SC 13D/A BUSINESS ADDRESS: STREET 1: 9 WEST 57TH STREET CITY: NEW YORK STATE: NY ZIP: 10019 MAIL ADDRESS: STREET 1: 9 WEST 57TH STREET CITY: NEW YORK STATE: NY ZIP: 10019 SC 13D/A 1 MARIETTA CORPORATION 13D AMENDMENT FILING SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20549 Amendment No. 4 to SCHEDULE 13D Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 Marietta Corporation (Name of Issuer) Common Stock, $.01 par value (Title of Class of Securities) 56763410 (CUSIP Number) David P. Levin, Esq. Kramer, Levin, Naftalis, Nessen, Kamin & Frankel 919 Third Avenue New York, New York 10022 (212) 715-9100 (Name, Address and Telephone Number of Person Authorized to Receive Notices and Communications) April 13, 1995 (Date of Event which Requires Filing of this Statement) If the filing person has previously filed a statement on Schedule 13G to report the acquisition which is the subject of this Schedule 13D, and is filing this schedule because of Rule 13d-1(b)(3) or (4), check the following box: Check the following box if a fee is being paid with this statement: Page 1 of 10 pages PAGE Amendment No. 4 to Schedule 13D This Amendment amends the Schedule 13D, dated January 20, 1995, as amended by Amendment No. 1 thereto dated February 15, 1995, Amendment No. 2 thereto dated March 6, 1995 and Amendment No. 3 thereto dated April 3, 1995 (the "Schedule 13D"), filed by Dickstein & Co., L.P., Dickstein International Limited, Dickstein Partners, L.P., Dickstein Partners Inc., Mark Dickstein, Calibre Capital Advisors, Inc. and Howard R. Shapiro, with respect to the Common Stock, $.01 par value, of Marietta Corporation (the "Schedule 13D"). Notwithstanding this Amendment, the Schedule 13D speaks as of its respective dates. Capitalized terms used without definition have the meanings assigned to them in the Schedule 13D. Item 4 of the Schedule 13D, "Purpose of the Transaction," is hereby amended by adding the following at the end thereof: "On April 11, 1995, the Company delivered to Dickstein Inc. a form of confidentiality letter annexed as Exhibit 9 hereto, and Dickstein Inc. discussed this form of confidentiality letter with Goldman, Sachs & Co., the financial advisers to the Company. Following such discussions, on April 13, 1995, Mark Dickstein, President of Dickstein Inc., sent a letter to the Board of Directors of the Company. A copy of Mr. Dickstein's letter is annexed hereto as Exhibit 10 and incorporated herein by reference." Item 7 of the Schedule 13D, "Exhibits," is hereby amended by adding the following Exhibits: Exhibit 9 Form of confidentiality letter delivered to Dickstein Inc. by the Company Exhibit 10 Letter, dated April 13, 1995, from Mark Dickstein to the Board of Directors of the Company. 2 SIGNATURE After reasonable inquiry and to the best knowledge and belief of the undersigned, the undersigned certify that the information set forth in this Statement is true, complete and correct. Date: April 14, 1995 DICKSTEIN & CO., L.P. By: Alan Cooper, as Vice President of Dickstein Partners Inc., the general partner of Dickstein Partners, L.P., the general partner of Dickstein & Co., L.P. /s/ Alan Cooper Name: Alan Cooper DICKSTEIN INTERNATIONAL LIMITED By: Alan Cooper, as Vice President of Dickstein Partners Inc., the agent of Dickstein International Limited /s/ Alan Cooper Name: Alan Cooper DICKSTEIN PARTNERS, L.P. By: Alan Cooper, as Vice President of Dickstein Partners Inc., the general partner of Dickstein Partners, L.P. /s/ Alan Cooper Name: Alan Cooper 3 DICKSTEIN PARTNERS INC. By: Alan Cooper, as Vice President /s/ Alan Cooper Name: Alan Cooper /s/ Mark Dickstein Mark Dickstein CALIBRE CAPITAL ADVISORS, INC. By: Howard R. Shapiro, as President /s/ Howard R. Shapiro Name: Howard R. Shapiro /s/ Howard R. Shapiro Howard R. Shapiro 4 EX-9 2 EXHIBIT 9 LETTER PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL Exhibit 9 April 10, 1995 Dickstein Partners, Inc. 9 West 57th Street Suite 4630 New York, New York 10019 Attention: Mr. Mark Dickstein Gentlemen: In connection with your consideration of a possible transaction with Marietta Corporation (the "Company"), you have requested information concerning the Company. As a condition to your being furnished such information, you agree to treat any information concerning the Company (whether prepared by the Company, its advisors or otherwise) which is furnished to you by or on behalf of the Company (herein collectively referred to as the "Evaluation Material") in accordance with the provisions of this letter and to take or abstain from taking certain other actions herein set forth. The term "Evaluation Material" does not include information which (i) is already in your possession, provided that such information is not known by you to be subject to another confidentiality agreement with or other obligation of secrecy to the Company or another party, or (ii) becomes generally available to the public other than as a result of a disclosure by you or your directors, officers, employees, agents or advisors, or (iii) becomes available to you on a nonconfidential basis from a source other than the Company or its advisors, provided that such source is not known by you to be bound by a confidentiality agreement with or other obligation of secrecy to the Company or another party. You hereby agree that the Evaluation Material will be used solely for the purpose of evaluating a possible transaction between the Company and you, and that such information will be kept confidential by you and your advisors; provided, however, that (i) any of such information may be disclosed to your directors, officers and employees and representatives of your advisors who 5 PAGE Dickstein Partners Inc. April 10, 1995 Page 2 need to know such information for the purpose of evaluating any such possible transaction between the Company and you (it being understood that such directors, officers, employees and representatives shall be informed by you of the confidential nature of such information and shall be directed by you to treat such information confidentially), and (ii) any disclosure of such information may be made to which the Company consents in writing. You hereby acknowledge that you are aware, and that you will advise such directors, officers, employees and representatives who are informed as to the matters which are the subject of this letter, that the United States securities laws prohibit any person who has received from an Issuer material, non-public information concerning the matters which are the subject of this letter from purchasing or selling securities of such Issuer or from communicating such information to any other person under circumstances in which it is reasonably foreseeable that such person is likely to purchase or sell such securities. In addition, without the prior written consent of the Company, you will not, and will direct such directors, officers, employees and representatives not to, disclose to any person either the fact that discussions or negotiations are taking place concerning a possible transaction between the Company and you or any of the terms, conditions or other facts with respect to any such possible transaction, including the status thereof. You hereby acknowledge that the Evaluation Material is being furnished to you in consideration of your agreement that for a period of one year from the date of this letter, unless such shall have been specifically invited by the Company, neither you nor any of your affiliates (as defined under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) will (i) propose to the Company or any other person any transaction between you and the Company and/or its security holders or involving any of its securities or security holders, whether by merger, tender offer or otherwise, (ii) acquire, or assist, advise or encourage any other persons in acquiring, directly or indirectly, control of the Company, whether by solicitation of proxies or otherwise, or any of the Company's securities, businesses or assets or iii) request or demand the call, or participate with or in any way assist any other person in requesting or demanding the call of a special or annual meeting of shareholders. You also agree that the Company 6 Dickstein Partners Inc. April 10, 1995 Page 3 shall be entitled to equitable relief, including injunction, in the event of any breach of the provisions of this paragraph and that you shall not oppose the granting of such relief. Although the Company has endeavored to include in the Evaluation Material information known to it which it believes to be relevant for the purpose of your investigation, you understand that neither the Company nor any of its representatives or advisors have made or make any representation or warranty as to the accuracy or completeness of the Evaluation Material. You agree that neither the Company nor its representatives or advisors shall have any liability to you or any of your representatives or advisors resulting from the use of the Evaluation Material. In the event that you do not proceed with the transaction which is the subject of this letter within a reasonable time, you shall promptly redeliver to the Company all written Evaluation Material and any other written material containing or reflecting any information in the Evaluation Material (whether prepared by the Company, its advisors or otherwise) and will not retain any copies, extracts or other reproductions in whole or in part of such written material. All documents, memoranda, notes and other writings whatsoever prepared by you or your advisors based on the information in the Evaluation Material shall be destroyed, and such destruction shall be certified in writing to the Company by an authorized officer supervising such destruction. You agree that unless and until a definitive agreement between the Company and you with respect to any transaction referred to in the first paragraph of this letter has been executed and delivered, neither the Company nor you will be under any legal obligation of any kind whatsoever with respect to such a transaction by virtue of this or any written or oral expression with respect to such a transaction by any of its directors, officers, employees, agents or any other representatives or its advisors or representatives thereof except, in the case of this letter, for the matters specifically agreed to herein. The agreement set forth in this paragraph may be modified or waived only by a separate writing by the Company and you expressly so modifying or waiving such agreement. 7 Dickstein Partners Inc. April 10, 1995 Page 4 This letter shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the State of New York. Very truly yours, MARIETTA CORPORATION By: ________________________________ Goldman, Sachs & Co. on behalf of Marietta Corporation Confirmed and Agreed to: Dickstein Partners Inc. 8 EX-10 3 EXHIBIT 10 LETTER EXHIBIT 10 DICKSTEIN PARTNERS INC. Mark Dickstein Tel: 212-754-4000 President Fax: 212-754-5825 April 13, 1995 Board of Directors Marietta Corporation 37 Huntington Street Cortland, New York 13045 Gentlemen: It is now nearly three months since we and Calibre Capital Advisors first expressed to you our interest in acquiring Marietta for $11 per share. As we said at that time, there was a strong possibility that, if you would provide us the more- detailed nonpublic information that would normally be provided to a prospective bidder, we would be in a position to offer a higher price. We have repeatedly contacted your chief executive officer, Mr. Tannen, and your financial adviser, Goldman, Sachs & Co., with a view to obtaining this more-detailed nonpublic information. Following your announcement on March 13 that Marietta was exploring its financial alternatives, both Mr. Tannen and Goldman Sachs assured us that Marietta would deal with us in a fair and evenhanded manner vis-a-vis other bidders or financing sources in Marietta's efforts to maximize shareholder value. Specifically, we were repeatedly assured that we would receive the detailed nonpublic information as soon as it was available (and no later than any other prospective bidder or financing source). When we repeatedly asked to see a draft confidentiality agreement, we were told that Marietta's counsel was too busy to prepare a three-page draft, but that we would receive one as soon as it was ready and that counsel for Marietta would then immediately meet with our counsel to resolve any differences "in an afternoon." 9 PAGE We placed our most recent follow-up call to Goldman Sachs on April 10. In response to our inquiry, we were told that confidentiality agreements had already been sent the prior week to other interested parties, some of whom had already signed the agreements and received the information we had been seeking -- despite all the prior assurances that we would receive the confidentiality agreement as soon as it was ready and not later than anyone else. Finally, we received on April 11 the confidentiality agreement that we are being asked to sign. The agreement would prohibit us for one year from (among other things) proposing any transaction between us and the Company and/or its security holders, acquiring control of the Company (by solicitation of proxies or otherwise), or requesting a shareholders' meeting -- all this despite the fact that we had already proposed to acquire the Company, expressed our intention to solicit proxies to replace the present directors, and demanded that the Board of Directors call the annual meeting of shareholders. We, of course, will agree to none of these prohibitions -- as your representatives well knew all along, even as they assured us that any issues on the confidentiality agreement would be easily resolved. The proposed confidentiality agreement is, plain and simple, an attempt to exclude us -- the only announced bidder for the Company and the holder of nearly 15% of its outstanding shares -- from participating on an equal footing with other interested parties in the process that the Company is conducting to explore its financial alternatives. This transparent effort to exclude us is plainly detrimental to Marietta's public shareholders and we believe is in breach of your fiduciary duties to shareholders. It also flies in the face of assurances made to us that the process would be conducted fairly and that we would be given as much opportunity as anyone else to make our best offer. It is hard to understand how the Board of Directors, consistent with its fiduciary duty to shareholders, could exclude us, a serious and responsible bidder, from the process and not give us the information we need to make our best bid. The circumstances here are not novel or unique. There are today a number of instances where a potential buyer has made an unsolicited acquisition proposal and announced its intention to solicit proxies in an effort to replace the company's board, and the company in response has decided to explore its financial alternatives. For example, just last month Luxottica Group made an unsolicited bid to acquire U.S. Shoe and announced its intention to solicit proxies to replace the board of U.S. Shoe. The board of U.S. Shoe felt the offer undervalued the company. 10 PAGE When Luxottica stated it would raise its bid if U.S. Shoe could convince it, through nonpublic information, that there was value beyond that set forth in its bid, U.S. Shoe provided Luxottica with nonpublic information pursuant to a confidentiality agreement containing none of the standstill prohibitions Marietta has asked us to accept. Quite the opposite, the U.S. Shoe confidentiality agreement made express allowance for Luxottica to pursue a proxy contest. Similarly, WHX recently made an unsolicited proposal to acquire Teledyne and announced its intention to solicit proxies to replace the board of Teledyne. Teledyne (a Goldman client) provided WHX with nonpublic information pursuant to a confidentiality agreement containing none of the standstill prohibitions Marietta seeks to impose, and expressly permitting WHX to solicit proxies. Following the receipt of the nonpublic information, WHX raised its bid. We have no doubt that other parties to whom Marietta has sent confidentiality agreements have voiced no objection to the standstill prohibitions. But that is plainly beside the point. Those parties have no intention of making an unsolicited acquisition proposal, no intention of soliciting proxies, no intention of calling for a shareholders meeting, and no existing equity stake that could be jeopardized by the existing Board's decisions. That others would agree to refrain from doing what they never intended to do in the first place has no bearing on whether it is reasonable for Marietta to impose such restrictions as a condition to providing us the nonpublic information that any prospective bidder would need in order to make its best offer. The directors of U.S. Shoe acted responsibly in giving information to Luxottica in order to get Luxottica's best offer even though Luxottica was still pursuing its unsolicited acquisition proposal and had not backed off from its intention to solicit proxies to replace the U.S. Shoe board. The directors of Teledyne acted responsibly in giving information to WHX in order to get WHX's best offer even though WHX was still pursuing its unsolicited acquisition proposal and was still pursuing its intention to solicit proxies in a director election contest. All we ask is that the directors of Marietta do the same. Over the past two months we have given Marietta the benefit of any doubt regarding its assurances as to how the exploration-of-financial-alternatives process would be conducted and how we would be treated. At this point we cannot help but feel that Marietta has dealt with us in bad faith. We insist that you do whatever is necessary, consistent with reasonable 11 commercial practice, to obtain the best offers from all responsible persons who express an interest in acquiring Marietta, including ourselves, and not to favor any one person over any other. We believe your fiduciary duty to shareholders requires you to do no less. Two days ago, we asked Goldman whether the Company would remove the standstill provisions from the confidentiality agreement, and Goldman undertook to take that request to the Board. Not having heard any response, we are now writing to you directly. Please let us know promptly whether you wish to provide us with the information that will enable us to make our highest and best offer or whether, instead, you will insist on retaining the standstill provisions, thereby excluding us from your process. If you are willing to delete the standstill provisions, we are prepared to work with your advisors to finalize the confidentiality agreement expeditiously. Very truly yours, Mark Dickstein 12 -----END PRIVACY-ENHANCED MESSAGE-----