Ashton-Tate Corp shareholders of long standing aren’t going to find this all that funny, but our recollection is that Borland International Inc’s original offer was a one-for-one share exchange at a time when Borland was trading at $17 and Ashton at $12 – well on the agreed terms Ashton holders have got their $17 – and a little bit more, but they’ve missed the chance of participating in the soaring of Borland’s share price to over $50 this year, and now get a lot less of the combined company, because instead of paying one Borland for one Ashton, Philippe Kahn is paying under 0.4 of a share for each Ashton; Borland must be over the moon because Ashton can’t be worth that much less than it was a year ago.
