Harcourt Abruptly Cancels Its Planned Shareholders Meeting

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc. abruptly canceled a planned shareholders meeting Friday, apparently in an effort to keep shareholders sympathetic to British publisher Robert Maxwell’s takeover offer from disrupting a management plan to issue more stock.

Meanwhile, the company’s stock fell for the third straight day, in what analysts took as a sign that investors are losing confidence that there will be a takeover. The stock, which last Monday shot to $48 from $29 on news of the offer, closed at $43.50, down $1.875.

The diversified publishing concern did not explain why it canceled the special meeting, which had been called to approve the doubling of Harcourt’s outstanding shares to about 100 million. Shareholders were also scheduled to vote on immediate issuance of 8.6 million new shares.

Maxwell said his offer was conditioned on Harcourt withdrawing the stock proposal, which would have made the takeover far more expensive.

Harcourt’s management said in a statement that about 25.2 million shares, or 64% of the 39.4 million shares outstanding, had been cast in favor of the proposal. But some big shareholders have already aired their unhappiness with the plan, and management may have feared that some would have changed their favorable votes had the meeting been held, one analyst said.