Final Chapter Is Written in Acquisition Saga of RRD as ‘Mystery Strategic Buyer’ Backs Out

With the Chicago-based printer's Feb. 2 announcement that the unnamed "strategic buyer" had withdrawn its non-binding and conditional offer to acquire the publicly-held printer for $11.50 per share in cash, RRD's largest bondholder and a 14.99% stock shareholder, Chatham Asset Management, will come out as the victor. Chatham Asset Management had to fend off fellow private equity firm Atlas Holdings multiple times in a bidding war, as well as file litigation in Delaware Chancery Court against RRD's board of directors and Atlas, to thwart the initial $2.1 billion acquisition agreement reached between RRD and Atlas on Nov. 3, 2021, for $8.52 per share in cash. A dissident investor that had long been at odds —including a threat to wage a proxy war — with RRD's board of directors and senior leadership, Chatham had actually been the first to make a fully-financed acquisition bid for $7.50 per share in cash.