Acxiom's Second-Largest Shareholder Says it will Oppose Buyout

The proposed buyout of data provider Acxiom (Nasdaq: ACXM) announced last week  has already run into trouble.  The latest: the second largest shareholder in Acxiom said in a letter that it will oppose the deal.

MMI Investments, a New York-based hedge fund that holds an 8.2 percent stake in Acxiom, claims that the offered price — $27.10 per share – is too low and that it was “extremely disappointed” in the news. In the letter, MMI said that the price was about 20% too low, in fact.  MMI is hoping that a better offer will surface during the mandatory 60-day “go shop” period, but they’re not holding their breath.

"It is our belief that the ‘go-shop’ mechanism is a poor substitute for a full auction with a comprehensively marketed property.  We can only hope that the ‘go-shop’ for our company is a genuine one, with clear, concise and thoughtful distribution of information and thorough outreach to potential buyers," MMI said in its letter.

Acxiom, a global information and technology company, offers debt recovery and skip tracing services to the ARM industry through its AcxiomInsight division [www.acxiominsight.com], a unit created in 2005 with the acquisition of InsightAmerica.

The merger already drummed up some controversy when a reporter for Bloomberg noticed a very high volume of call options placed on Acxiom’s stock in the days leading up to the deal announcement.  No one – Acxiom nor the SEC – are commenting on the trades at this time.