US tyre maker Cooper Tire & Rubber Co recently announced that it has dropped out from the merger agreement it waxed in early June of 2013 with Indian tyre maker, Apollo.
After a series of disputes over the US$2.5 billion acquisition deal, Copper Tire decides that it will just move on to focus on building its business, heeding that the acquisition will not be consummated.
During the period of the pending merger agreement, the two firms figured in court battles to settle the terms of negotiations, once and for all.
In what seemed to be the latest thread for Cooper, was its allegation that Apollo deliberately delayed settling labour agreement with the United Steelworkers union, which represented Cooper’s employees from three sites, to re-negotiate for a better deal.
Cooper’s other legal actions against Apollo had been ruled unfavourably by the courts. Nevertheless, the Ohio-based tyre firm has stood by its claim that Apollo had breached the merger agreement.