I was reading this from Reuter............
* Harman says not familiar with party claiming to make bid
* Stock down 10.4 pct, after jumping over 30 pct premarket
* Incident echoes Textron case in April (Adds background on Textron, hoaxes, byline; updates shares)
By Franklin Paul
NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) - Harman International Industries Inc (HAR.N) denied receiving a buyout offer that sent its shares skyrocketing on Monday, as it became the latest U.S. company to be targeted by questionable bids purportedly from the Middle East.
The incident is similar to one in April when an alleged offer from a United Arab Emirates-Kuwait consortium for diversified U.S. manufacturer Textron Inc (TXT.N) sent its shares up 47 percent. No deal ever materialized.
In both cases, a person identifying himself as a fund manager had called newsrooms touting the stories, but refusing to give contact numbers.
Several media outlets on Sunday received faxed statements that said a private investment firm called Arabian Peninsula Group (APG) planned to buy Harman for $49.50 a share -- double the high-end audio equipment maker's Friday close of $25.18.
Some media reported it, adding fuel to trading activity that boosted Harman shares at least 33 percent before the bell on Monday.
"The company has not received such communications and is not familiar with any parties claiming to make such a solicitation," Harman said in a statement before the market's official open.
By early afternoon, Harman shares had reversed course and were down 10.33 percent at $22.56 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Sunday statement from APG, which quoted an executive named Donald Parker, said to head APG's Strategic Investments Unit, did not provide a contact for verification. The fax came from a number beginning "965," which is Kuwait's country code. A Web search failed to yield any details on APG.
Kuwait has no financial regulator to oversee the Arab world's second-largest bourse, and fund managers, traders and company officials sometimes leak sensitive corporate information or questionable stories that can move the market.
With some 17 newspapers competing for news, financial pages often carry unsourced stories on quarterly results or deals which may or may not be true, forcing companies to issue denials or clarifications on the Kuwait bourse website.
One needs to wonder don't they.....
