Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc offered to purchase Men's Wearhouse Inc on Wednesday for about $2.3 billion in cash but was swiftly rebuffed by its larger rival, which dismissed the offer as "inadequate" and said it could do better on its own.Later on Wednesday Men's Wearhouse adopted a poison pill, or shareholder rights plan, that would be triggered if an outside investor acquires more than 10 percent or more of Men's Wearhouse common stock, or 15 percent if a passive institutional investor were to take a stake. The poison pill, a device used by companies to prevent hostile takeovers, expires Sept. 30, 2014, unless Men's Wearhouse decides to end it earlier.The $48 cash offer, which would create a men's wear heavyweight with more than 1,700 stores in North America, is a 36 percent premium to the closing price of Men's Wearhouse shares on Tuesday.But Men's Wearhouse shares closed the day up 27.8 percent at $45.03 on Wednesday, below the offer price. Jos. A. Bank's closed 6.4 percent at $44.33 on the Nasdaq. After Men's Wearhouse announced the poison pill, shares fell 0.5 percent in after hours.
The Men?s Wearhouse, Inc. is a specialty retailer of men?s suits and a provider of tuxedo rental product in the United States and Canada. Shares of MW traded higher by 27.78% or $9.79/share to $45.03. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $27.42 and as high as $45.56. On average, 807650 shares of MW exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 15798362.
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