A family owned business in Germany, Schaeffler, a maker of ball bearings and other automotive equipments are launching a hostile bid to take over Continental, and maker most famous for their tyres, with which had recently gone into automotive electronics business after spending a lot of liquidity on acquiring Siemens VDO, which focuses on Satelite Navigations and Fuel Injection tchnologies.
The acquisition bid by Schaeffler will cost up north of $17.9 Billion USD, and it is reported that Continental is all shocked over this and will seek intervention from Germany's regulator Bafin.
Maria-Elisabeth Schaeffler tried to calm public fear over this unsolicited takeover bid by claiming that Schaeffler will be happy even with a minority stake, and that no mass lay-offs or breaking up of the Hanover based, Continental will happen.
Continental had earlier on offered 20% shares for Schaeffler but was rejected, adding proof that this takeover bid is all hostile.
If Schaeffler succeeds in taking over Continental, it will be the first time a family run private limited company taking over a listed on Germany's Blue Chip index DAX stock market; which is three times the size of Schaeffler.
Continental is currently ranked No.4 amongst top 100 world automotive suppliers with sales of $25 Billion last year.
