Wall Street at its Ugliest
L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (LLL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chief Executive Frank Lanza died suddenly late on Tuesday, leaving the mid-tier U.S. defense contractor without a designated leader and prey to acquisition-hungry rivals.
The board of the New York-based company, which Lanza built from nothing to become the Pentagon’s ninth-largest contractor, will meet on Wednesday to discuss its leadership.
L-3 shares were up 4 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.
Just last week L-3 shares were downgraded, with the analyst “citing uncertainty over option grant timing, pricey acquisitions and a lack of visibility with succession planning.”
The timing of option grants to Frank Lanza now seems somewhat trivial. The Street is betting that L-3 will be the next pricey acquisition. And that lack of succession planning just might make it happen. So the shares are up.
“The Street” is a cold, calculating beast, and if someone didn’t bid up the shares on the news someone else would have. But that doesn’t cleanse the bad taste we have in our mouths.
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[…] L-3 Up For Grabs Missing Man formation, originally uploaded by Rover75. Scarcely out of mourning for former CEO Frank Lanza, L-3 Communications (LLL) appears to have officially put up the for-sale sign. You may recall that the shares soared on news of his passing - not because he was considered a bad CEO but because of speculation that the company could be acquired. Since then, the macabre euphoria has worn off, and the shares are trading below the level last seen by Lanza. […]