Gaylord Tells Rowling's TRT Holdings to Hold Its Offer Between Its Knees

Nashville-based Gaylord Entertainment is under siege, and Dallas-Fort Worth looks to be the battleground at the moment. A local's looking to stage a hostile takeover: Robert Rowling, the six-billionaire whose Irving-based TRT Holdings holds amongst its holdings the Omni hotel chain, recently the beneficiary of City Hall's good tidings as...

By Robert Wilonsky

December 3, 2008

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Nashville-based Gaylord Entertainment is under siege, and Dallas-Fort Worth looks to be the battleground at the moment. A local's looking to stage a hostile takeover: Robert Rowling, the six-billionaire whose Irving-based TRT Holdings holds amongst its holdings the Omni hotel chain, recently the beneficiary of City Hall's good tidings as operator of the convention center hotel. TRT also owns some 14.3 percent of Gaylord's stock, currently $58 bucks off its 52-week high.

But Gaylord doesn't wanna be took, especially not by Omni. Yesterday it issued a media release in which it said, that "after careful deliberation," its board gave Rowling the Heisman. Among the reasons: conflict of interest. Says the release, Omni "competes nationwide with the Company for meeting business and directly with the Company's hotels in three of its four principal markets" -- including Dallas-Fort Worth, where Gaylord, of course, owns and operate the malltropolis Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center. Rowling said that after careful delibertion, he didn't want Gaylord's sloppy seconds anyhow. --Robert Wilonsky

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