Marriott International, Inc. has been informed by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, and Starwood has announced publicly, that the Starwood Board of Directors has determined that it considers an Anbang consortium proposal to acquire Starwood to be a “Superior Proposal” to Marriott’s existing merger agreement with Starwood.
Starwood has further informed Marriott that it intends to terminate the merger agreement with Marriott unless Marriott and Starwood agree on revisions to their merger agreement that Starwood’s board of directors determines to be superior to the Angang proposal.
Under the terms of Marriott’s merger agreement with Starwood, Marriott has the right to propose revised terms and Starwood must negotiate in good faith with Marriott to discuss any such proposed revised terms, for a period of five business days ending on Monday, March 28 at 11:59 p.m. ET. If Starwood terminates the Marriott merger agreement in order to accept the consortium proposal, Starwood must pay Marriott a termination fee of $400 million in cash.
Marriott continues to believe that a combination of Marriott and Starwood is the best course for both companies and offers the best value to Starwood shareholders. Marriott is in the process of reviewing the Anbang consortium’s proposal and is carefully considering its alternatives. The company is considering postponing its Special Meeting of Stockholders which is currently scheduled for March 28, 2016. Marriott has no further public comment at this time.
In November last year, Marriott International and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide announced their merger agreement under which would have made them the world's largest hotel company. The companies would have operated or franchised more than 5,500 hotels with 1.1 million rooms worldwide.
