Carter-Wallace Stays Silent While Gabelli Gripes

Large shareholder and asset management heavyweight Mario Gabelli has a beef with Carter-Wallace Inc.’s (CWI) supposed plans to sell itself in two pieces. He wants to see the consumer products/pharmaceutical manufacturer participate in a stock buyback program. And in the midst of the brouhaha, $1 billion market cap CWI has not said boo. In response to inquiries from Mergers & Acquisitions Report, Gabelli said the tight junk bond market, which makes for a difficult environment to raise cash, is precisely why “we do not want to see the company sell itself” at this point. Instead Gabelli, who does not expect the situation to escalate to a proxy fight, wants CWI to participate in a $250 million buy back of its stock. All eight members of CWI’s board are up for re-election this year.