Cisco, Colgate Drop Poison Pills

Two large companies led the band rolling back their poison pills in March. They were network gear producer Cisco Systems Inc. and household and personal care products maker Colgate-Palmolive Co. Calpine Corp. and Heritage Commerce Corp. dropped both shareholders rights plans and staggered boards while Realty Income Co. rounded out the group eliminating pills. Moving in the opposite direction by installing pills were: Digital Impact Inc.; EDGAR Online Inc.; Farmer Bros. Co.; OXIGENE Inc.; Renovis Inc.; TLC Vision Corp.; and Waters Instruments Inc. Bayou Steel Corp. became the second firm in as many months with large net operating loss (NOL) tax credits to reduce the trigger point on its pill from 15% to 4.99% to prevent a change of control that might jeopardize the credits. Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp. made the same move in February. Copyright 2005 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com http://www.majournal.com