Darden Restaurants Inc said on Friday it would sell Red Lobster to private equity firm Golden Gate Capital for $2.1 billion in cash, defying activist investors who opposed plans to shed the struggling seafood chain.Darden said the sale was not subject to shareholder approval and should close in the quarter ending in August. Its shares were down 3.9 percent at $48.73 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.Hedge fund Starboard Value LP, which owns about 5.5 percent of Darden's outstanding shares, opposed a sale or spinoff of Red Lobster, saying it could wipe out as much as $800 million of shareholder value."The announced sale woefully undervalues Red Lobster and its real estate assets," Starboard Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Smith said in a statement on Friday.
Darden Restaurants, Inc. is a full service restaurant company. Shares of DRI fell by 3.27% or $-1.66/share to $49.03. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $44.78 and as high as $55.25. On average, 1400880 shares of DRI exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 3501450.
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