CKG suitors

IDOL FINALISTS: CKX, the parent company of 19 Entertainment, has adopted a "poison pill" aimed at preventing any potential suitors from trying to team up with former company head Robert F.X. Sillerman, who owns just over 20% of CKX's stock, after CKX received a letter from an unnamed third party saying it was in talks with Sillerman, the L.A. Times reports. This suitor apparently wants to team up with Sillerman so it wouldn’t have to buy all of the CKX shares to take control of the company. In a statement, CKX said its board has determined that it isn't in the stockholders' interest to engage in any deal for less than all of the shares of the company, end the CKX Stockholder Rights Plan would allow the company to issue preferred shares to protect it from "potentially coercive takeover tactics." There are two standing offers from prospective buyers: a $600 million bid from American Idol creator and former CKX board member Simon Fuller, and a $550 million offer from One Equity Partners. Fuller and Sillerman have had a rocky relationship of late, Fuller resigning earlier this year after clashing with Sillerman. But anything can happen in this still-unfolding corporate drama. (6/25a)