Defense Company UTX pays a lot of money to buy voting machine company Diebold in a bad market and ah

Defense Company UTX pays a lot of money to buy voting machine company Diebold in a bad market and ahead of crucial elections

biz.yahoo.com

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- United Technologies Corp., continuing to broaden its security business and expand its presence in China, said Sunday it has made an offer to buy Diebold Inc. for $2.63 billion.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I find it very suspicious that a US defense company (UTX) would pay so much money (67% premium) to buy Diebold after the stock market essentially crashed on Friday and given the fact that Diebold has horrible operational problems in addition to a Department of Justice accounting investigation.

Also the timing of the acquisition is very suspicious ahead of the November elections. I find it remarkable that the CEO of UTX even offered to pay more for Diebold, if the voting machine maker was not satisfied with its original offer, and this is incredibly generous and awkward for Corporate America.

Therefore, I am curious to see if anyone believes that this merger is some how related to the upcoming elections, which are so far projected to be very close.

biz.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Originally posted by Gpbanker03
I am curious to see if anyone believes that this merger is some how related to the upcoming elections...

First off, welcome to ATS!

As to your question, I don't follow financial news (it tends to confuse me), but Diebold is high on everybody's radar around here, come election time, so the natural questions should be: who's trying so hard to acquire them and what are their interests? Are they purely financial? No, according to you, so (places tinfoil hat firmly on head), it must be a conspiracy!

On my end, I did some regular conspiracy digging. You asked about a connection between United Technologies and the election, right? This is what I found:

United Technologies
Wants to buy Diebold at a ridiculous price
Their lobbyist is Charles R. Black

Charles R. Black
is John McCain's chief political advisor
is chairman of one of Washington's lobbying powerhouses, BKSH & Associates

BKSH & Associates
is a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller Worldwide

Burson-Marsteller Worldwide
CEO is Mark Penn

Mark Penn
chief strategist and pollster for Hillary Clinton

A Few Degrees of Separation From Hillary Clinton's Top Adviser
The Anti-Lobbyist, Advised by Lobbyists
Charles Black's official bio

The whole thing is downright incestuous! (*stalks off in mock outrage*)

Just kidding... most of us knew they got together and planned all this, or were waiting for some kind of proof.

These interconnections really put Hillary's whole, "John McCain is so experienced" line in whole new light. I haven't had time to look through it all, just getting all the links together wore me out. What strikes me off the bat is how they just don't care how obvious they are. Think about it: everybody in DC knows this. They just don't tell us... and they didn't expect us to care, it seems.

[edit on 7-3-2008 by HarlemHottie]