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latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-review28dec28,1,3532016.story

TOP STORIES -- Dec. 21-26

WEEK IN REVIEW

From Times Staff

December 28, 2003

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Farmer Bros. Ends Bitter Family Feud in Buyout

A bitter, decades-long battle between two branches of the family that founded Farmer Bros. Co. ended in Los Angeles County Superior Court when the company agreed to buy out the interest of the Crowe clan for $111 million.

The settlement leaves the Farmer branch in control of the Torrance company and gives Crowe family members a fortune they had been unable to tap because of a complex family trust.

The settlement also probably alters the outcome of a separate fight between the company and dissident shareholders, including Franklin Mutual Advisors, a longtime critic of the company's management. The deal strengthens 87-year-old company Chairman Roy F. Farmer's hand by giving him, other executives and an employee stock ownership plan 58.3% of the company.

The Farmer-led management team intends to use its majority of shares to reincorporate the business in Delaware and take a number of other actions opposed by Franklin, which owns 9.6% of Farmer's stock. A shareholder vote is set for Jan. 21.

The company also plans a 10-for-1 stock split.

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Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times
 

 

The Forum is open to all Farmer Bros. shareholders, whether institutional or individual, and to professionals concerned with their investment decisions.  Its purpose is to provide shareholders with access to information and a free exchange of views on issues relating to their evaluations of alternatives.  As stated in the Forum's Conditions of Participation, participants are expected to make independent use of information obtained through the Forum, subject to the privacy rights of other participants.  It is a Forum rule that participants will not be identified or quoted without their explicit permission.

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