Its final offer: ArvinMeritor raises Dana bid

ArvinMeritor Inc is increasing its tender offer to $18 per share in cash to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Dana Corp. The Dana board of directors "will evaluate ArvinMeritor's revised offer and will advise Dana shareholders of the board's position regarding the revised offer and its reasons for such position," according to a statement issued by Dana.

Larry Yost, chairman and chief executive officer of ArvinMeritor, said, "We continue to believe this is a logical combination that makes strategic sense. When we first approached Dana on June 4, 2003, Dana's stock was trading at under $10 per share. Since then, nothing in Dana's recent performance has indicated that its current stock levels are sustainable as an independent company. If the Dana board gives our offer a fair and objective review, we believe that they will want to pursue a combination of the two companies. However, our primary responsibility is to ArvinMeritor's shareowners, and we do not believe it is in their best interests to continue expending valuable corporate resources for an indeterminate period of time."

ArvinMeritor said this is its final offer, and the company will terminate its tender offer Dec 2, 2003, at 5 pm (EST) unless the Dana board agrees to begin negotiating a definitive merger agreement by that date.

Dana asked its shareholders to defer deciding whether to accept or reject ArvinMeritor's revised offer until they have been advised of the Dana board's position.