We’re going to take a break until 2015 on DuPont commentary barring some unexpected development.
But a recent Deal Book piece from the New York Times is must reading.
The op/ed piece outlines what most of us suspected already – DowDuPont is an impressive piece of financial engineering cooked up in a backroom somewhere off Wall Street, aided by the spreadsheets, the so-called white papers of activist investors like Nelson Peltz and a record of slicing and dicing by current DuPont CEO Edward Breen.
It was Peltz, who indirectly brought Breen on board when he made a bid for seats on the DuPont board. In response, the board added Breen and another veteran CEO.
How it will work in the real world is another story. Simply stated, Breen will need to be a transformative CEO capable of attracting three world-class chief executives to make the three-company approach work.
On the plus side, Breen’s track record does suggest that he is not comfortable with the view of Wall Street cowboys like Peltz, who don’t mind loading up companies with debt.
One thing is certain, Breen does not need the money. His golden parachute package at Tyco was $150 million, and he could be looking to score big again with a much bigger break-up deal.
