Bridgestone Corp. has agreed to takeout The Pep Boys – Manny, Moe & Jack (PBY) in an $835 million deal, marking a close to a sale process the auto-parts retailer launched about four months earlier after facing activist pressure. Bridgestone Americas, Inc., a division of tire and rubber giant Bridgestone, acquired the Philadelphia-based Pep Boys for $15 a share in an all-cash transaction that represented a premium of 23% over Pep Boys’ Friday closing price of $12.15 a share. The deal, which was approved by both companies’ boards, is scheduled to close in the beginning of 2016. The deal will add roughly 800 Pep Boys locations to Bridgestone’s U.S. network of 2,200 tire and automotive service centers. Pep Boys owns more than 7,500 service bays in more than 800 locations in 35 states and Puerto Rico and offers tires, maintenance, repair and parts and accessories. Bridgestone, based in Tokyo, is a big global rubber and tire maker. The deal comes after Mario Gabelli, who owns about 19% of Pep Boys, in June settled a proxy contest with Pep Boys in which he sought to install four dissident director candidates to the company’s nine person board. Shortly before the settlement, Gabelli reduced his director slate from six to four.
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