People Inc. is offering $18 billion for MGM while its largest shareholder already controls 26.1% of the outstanding stock and sits on the board. The conflict of interest math here is more interesting than the deal math.
People Inc. bid $48.30 per share for MGM Resorts, valuing it at roughly $18 billion. The stock closed at $50.69 the same day, which means the market has already priced in a higher number that Barry Diller hasn't offered yet.
Barry Diller's People Inc. offered $18 billion for MGM Resorts, but the market immediately priced the stock past the bid, which tells you everything about what Wall Street thinks this offer is actually worth.
MGM just posted its first Las Vegas revenue growth in three quarters and somehow still watched profits shrink. If you think that's just a Vegas problem, you haven't been paying attention to what's happening to operating margins across the entire industry.
