During that time, Pivotal shareholders will have a chance to more closely examine the Onyx proposal, Pivotal CEO Bo Manning told CRMDaily.com. "Extending the date has nothing to do with the board's firmness in rejecting the proposal," he said. However, the company has decided to request that shareholders postpone the meeting "to comply with all the norms of good government and securities laws."

Playing the Field

Corporate altruism aside, however, the Pivotal board has another very good reason to take a few more days to prepare for the meeting. During the Onyx brouhaha, another proposal has come forward.

Manning declined to name the entity, but he did say that the third proposal meets at least some of the criteria Pivotal has established for a buyer. Among them are the ability to offer financial stability to Pivotal, which has been struggling for some time, and a synergy of product offerings such that a merger or acquisition would present cross-selling opportunities to both companies.

In fact, a merger between Onyx and Pivotal would offer very little in the way of cross-selling openings, Aberdeen Group vice president Denis Pombriant told CRMDaily. Both companies have developed products based on Microsoft tools, he pointed out. There would be little compelling reason for a customer of one company to switch to the other's applications.

Jilted Suitor Pleads Case

For its part, Onyx has issued a statement asserting that its offer remains open and that its offer is superior. Of course, Onyx cannot wage a public-relations campaign against an unknown bidder, so it continues to focus on Oak Investment and Talisma.

"Onyx is in a position to thrive on its own. Pivotal and Talisma are not," the company claims. In addition, Onyx says that its own acquisition bid offers a variety of benefits to Pivotal shareholders -- including the creation of the second largest pure-play CRM vendor in the marketplace and the possible benefits of keeping the combined company public.

Onyx also has pointed out alleged inconsistencies in the shareholder paperwork surrounding proxy procedures and made a variety of assertions about its exclusion from the process Pivotal held to attract prospective buyers. (continued...)

1  |  2  |  Next Page >