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Cooper Tire & Rubber Co's argument to force a $2.5-billion takeover by Apollo Tyres centres on the reluctant suitor's insistence that the price be reduced, Cooper said in Delaware Supreme Court papers.
The company's lawyers will argue at a December 19 hearing Apollo violated the merger contract by insisting that any agreement with the United Steel workers union include reduction of the previously agreed-upon $35 a share, court papers show.
"Apollo's attempt to use its negotiations with the union to extract a price reduction from Cooper constituted a material breach of the merger agreement," Cooper said in a filing on Friday.
Cooper, based in Findlay, Ohio, said on June 12 it would be bought by Apollo. It sued Apollo to enforce the buyout after the Gurgaon, India-based company failed to close the deal.
After a Delaware Chancery Court trial in November, Judge Sam Glasscock III ruled Apollo didn't breach its contractual obligation to use its best efforts to resolve disputes with the union and he couldn't order Apollo to complete the buyout.
