BOSTON (Reuters) – Talks between First United Corp and Driver Management to settle a fight for board seats at the bank holding company broke down when the activist investor rejected the offer, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
“Your ‘best and final’ offer failed to meet what I clearly described as the minimum acceptable conditions for any cooperation agreement,” Driver Management founder Abbott Cooper wrote in a letter to the board’s lead director and seen by Reuters. “I think it is appropriate to suspend those discussions.”
They two sides now appear headed for a showdown at a time a number of companies have pushed to settle with activists amid the panic selling that battered their stock prices as the coronavirus has spread.
First United, the holding company for Maryland community bank First United Bank & Trust, said it was offering Driver a say in picking more than a quarter of its 11-member board, including two independent directors who would be…
