Boards should address undervaluation of their shares to ensure fairer treatment of minorities

MANY years ago, while reporting on a group of minority shareholders resisting a lowball offer for their company from its parent, a communications professional working for the acquirer attempted to discredit the dissident investors by telling me a dirty little secret about them.

"They are just trying to make money," she grumbled.

The way this communications professional saw it, many of the dissident minority investors were simply trying their luck by pushing for a higher price. Some of these investors may in fact have jumped on the stock only after the deal was announced, in the hope that the offer price would be raised.