Jacobs Makes Bid for Texas Oil, Gas Firm

Pioneer Corp., a Texas-based oil and gas concern, said Monday that it has received an unsolicited takeover offer of $23 a share from Minstar Inc., the company headed by Minneapolis financier Irwin L. Jacobs.

Also on Monday, Jacobs said that Minstar had received an unsolicited offer of $200 million in cash for the bowling operations of its AMF Inc. unit. Jacobs did not identify the bidder.

An investor group led by Jacobs currently owns about 4.6 million shares of Pioneer common stock, or 14% of the 33 million shares outstanding. Under Jacobs’ offer, the cost of buying the remaining shares would be $653.2 million.

Jacobs was elected in September to the board of directors of Pioneer, which is headquartered in Amarillo.

Pioneer said that it was reviewing Jacobs’ offer and that it planned to call a special meting of its board to consider the proposal. Pioneer said the offer was subject to approval by its directors and stockholders.

Jacobs, meanwhile, issued a terse statement saying that Minstar’s board would consider the offer for AMF’s bowling operations but had not set a date.

Minstar acquired AMF last year for about $560 million following a hostile takeover battle. As the acquisition was being completed, Jacobs announced plans in August to sell more than a dozen of AMF’s businesses. AMF’s bowling operation was not among the units that Jacobs planned to sell.