Nobody Likes Sara Lee's Board (SLE)

That's what some are asking, after Sara Lee SLE decided to break itself up, instead of selling itself as a whole. The board of directors has had three chances to sell itself in the past year, and all of them have come up fruitless. Bids from Brazilian food company JBS, KKR KKR and Apollo Management have come and gone, and shareholders are left holdings stock in a company not worth as much it should be. The company received bids as high as $18.50 per share, but pushed for $20 per share, and was ultimately rejected by the three bidders. In the past ten years, the company has sold off $9 billion worth of assets, and the stock is $2 lower than it was ten years ago. “The board felt pressured to do something and unless we don't understand the details, it seems to have given up on its commitment to creating shareholder value in favor of just doing something,” said Tim Ramey, a former Sara Lee vice president of strategy and corporate development. Ramey described the recent situation as "sad." Sara Lee's Mike Cummins was obviously more positive on the spilt, saying it was in the best interests of shareholders. “After careful consideration of multiple options, the board unanimously approved dividing Sara Lee into two, pure-play public companies because we believe this strategy is the best way to unlock shareholder value,” said Cummins. “This was a decision based on facts, not rumors or speculation, and is one both the board and senior management team stand behind 100 percent.” The company has spun off assets such as Hanesbrands HBI, Coach COH, only to see these spin offs climb higher in market value than the maker of Jimmy Dean Sausages and Sara Lee pies. Many were positive on the company when the company was a major conglomerate and wanted to unlock value. Now that most of the value has been unlocked, there is not much left for the company to do in the best interest of shareholders, and some are getting very angry. “There's no doubt there's a lot of shareholder discontent out there,” said Roy Smith, a finance professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University. “We actually liked Sara Lee as a conglomerate back when they wanted to spin everything off and unlock value,” said Nicholas Gerber, president of Ameristock Corp. “What they actually ended up doing was slowly dismembering a great American firm.” I guess the commercials were wrong. There are some people that don't like Sara Lee. At least the board, that is.