From: leroysoetoro@usurper.org   
      
   XPost: can.politics, alt.planning.transportation, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.politics.democrats, rec.crafts.metalworking, can.politics   
      
   http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2016/04/11/rail-mega-deal-pushed-   
   all-the-wrong-buttons/   
      
   The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed   
   are his own.   
      
   Canadian Pacific Railway’s $28 billion bid for rival Norfolk Southern   
   pushed all the wrong deal buttons. The now-abandoned, unsolicited offer   
   managed to alienate nearly every ally the railway needed: U.S. regulators,   
   the target’s board, customers, lawmakers – even the American military.   
      
   The conventional wisdom over the past 15 years or so has been that   
   regulators would block any major rail deal. A wave of messy restructurings   
   in the industry led to higher prices and service disruptions, prompting   
   the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to be wary of more mergers. The   
   board tightened standards to require any transaction to “enhance, not   
   merely preserve, competition.” That’s a difficult bar to clear.   
      
   Canadian Pacific and one of its biggest shareholders, activist investor   
   Bill Ackman, pursued a strategy of more efficiency and some fancy legal   
   footwork. The company argued that establishing a voting trust that would   
   hold Norfolk Southern shares could allow the two firms to integrate   
   quickly and smoothly. The savings expected from the deal would then be   
   passed on to customers, meaning all sides would come out ahead. Most   
   people beyond the CP boardroom were skeptical.   
      
   Norfolk Southern’s board dismissed the bid, and subsequent revisions, on   
   the basis that they were too low and would never win shareholder approval.   
   Department of Justice officials said the trust mechanism “made no sense,”   
   because it would effectively allow CP to complete the merger before   
   regulators had a chance to review the transaction. They urged the Surface   
   Transportation Board to reject the arrangement.   
      
   Meanwhile, customers like UPS, the biggest user of American railways,   
   objected to the proposed union. They said they feared costly disruption,   
   diminished service and higher prices. Many lawmakers also spoke out   
   against the merger, including the chairman of the House Transportation and   
   Infrastructure Committee. Even the military argued a deal could harm   
   national defense.   
      
   Canadian Pacific was left with little choice. After months of trying to   
   maneuver the merger to completion, it finally pushed the right button:   
   eject.   
      
      
      
   --   
   Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $19 trillion in the six   
   years he has been in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood   
   queer liberal democrat donors.   
      
   Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United   
   States of America.  The only American president to deliberately import a   
   lethal infectious disease from Africa, Ebola.   
      
   Loretta Fuddy, killed after she "verified" Obama's phony birth   
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   Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to   
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   felon using SSAN 042-68-4425, belonging to a dead man.   
      
   Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then   
   relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder   
   in order to cover up his own ineptitude.   
      
   Obama continues his muslim goal of disarming America while ObamaCare   
   increases insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.   
      
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